“It is necessary to ensure the stability of public finances and then the decision on the euro will be in our hands,” he said in an interview to Žinių Radijas on Tuesday.
“... we shall be in a situation that will enable us to manage the process and to choose what will be most favorable for Lithuania in that situation,” he said.
In Udrėnas’ opinion, Lithuania has possibilities to comply with Maastricht criteria, including the inflation criterion.
“With the prices of crude oil, fuel going down, it is likely for us to meet that criterion as well,” he said.
Lithuania’s government seeks to join the euro zone in 2014.
In order to adopt the euro, a country's average inflation rate cannot exceed by more than 1.5 percentage points the average of three best-performing member states in terms of price stability. Also, the country must keep its public sector deficit within 3 percent of GDP and public debt at no more than 60 percent of GDP.
Lithuania aimed to switch to the euro in 2007, but was refused entry because its inflation rate was above the Maastricht limit.
2012-05-29 14:36
President's adviser: Lithuania will strive to meet Maastricht criteria so it can decide wheter to adopt euro
Lithuania shall achieve a situation, in which it could decide on the adoption of the European single currency, Nerijus Udrėnas, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė’s chief adviser on economic and social policy, has said.
Nerijus Udrėnas / Šarūno Mažeikos/BFL nuotr.
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