“Turnover in euros has exceeded turnover in litas. Today, it’s more than 2.5 billion euros [worth of cash] and euros account for more than 50.4 percent of that amount,” Vitas Vasiliauskas said at a news conference on Friday.
He noted that Lithuania had crossed the symbolic 50-percent threshold quicker than Latvia.
“Today is the day of breakthrough in cash in circulation… That day came sooner than in Latvia or Estonia,” Vasiliaskas said, adding that this proved the popularity of the single European currency in the country.
“This shows that payments with euros took hold in the first week from the adoption of the single currency, which indicates that the euro is a popular tool… and I believe that the euro will probably achieve absolute dominance in cash payments by the end of those two weeks of dual circulation,” he said.
Lithuania adopted the single currency on 1 January. The litas and euro cash will be in dual circulation until 15 January.
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