"I think that the probability of us having the euro is very high, but one step is crucial at the moment, which is the 2014 draft budget. Basically, this will determine whether or not Lithuania will overstep the Maastricht criterion on budget deficit," she said in an interview published by the weekly magazine Veidas on Monday.
Šimonytė, a former minister of finance, said that the risk of inflation, which derailed Lithuania's bid to join the euro in early 2007, has diminished considerably. Global prices for imported energy resources and food products are favorable to Lithuania at the moment. There is no internal inflation pressure due to increasing demand either.
"So the inflation outlook looks rather good and the key issue now is how next year's budget deficit will look like. Our chance of having the euro in 2015 will depend on it. Everything is in the hands of the government and the Seimas here," she said.
The government has set 2015 as the target year for joining the euro zone.
Seventeen of the EU's 28 member states currently have the euro. To adopt the single currency, a country must meet the so-called Maastricht criteria on public finances deficit, inflation, and debt.
