Smooth euro adoption allows Lithuanian government borrow cheaper

For instance, the interest rate on 10-year nominal term Government securities issued in March this year compared to that of the April 2014 Government securities emission decreased from 3.087 percent to 0.766 percent.

The penultimate meeting of the Coordinating Committee on the Euro Adoption in Lithuania has been held recently where it was stated that the adoption of the euro in Lithuania was coordinated and well organised, and a successfully implemented communication strategy enabled to ensure that as many as 92 percent of the Lithuanians felt being well informed on the subject.

The business in Lithuania was actively joining the Memorandum of Good Business Practice during the adoption process: it was signed by 5,023 economic entities (13,639 places of supply of goods and services), i.e. 4 times more than in Latvia and almost 10 times more than in Estonia.

It was emphasized during the meeting that the biggest fear of the public that after adoption of the euro the prices of goods and services would increase has not materialised: in comparison to the same month of the last year, in January 2015, the annual deflation of all consumer goods and services of 1.5 percent (prices of services increased by 2.6 percent, prices of goods decreased by 2.8 percent) was recorded. In February 2015, the deflation was 1.8 percent (prices of services grew by 3.1 percent, prices of goods dropped down by 3.3 percent).

The euro awareness campaign conducted by the Ministry of Finance cost 20 percent less than those conducted in other countries earlier; 50 percent of the incurred costs are to be reimbursed by the European Commission.