Euro adoption

An increase in services prices in Lithuania last year was due to growing wages rather than to euro adoption, Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius said on Thursday.

After Lithuania joined the euro area on 1 January 2015, about 20 counterfeit euro notes have been discovered in the market, says Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis, adding that the number of suspected forgeries is considerably higher, but they are made outside Lithuania.

Lithuania has this year joined the other Baltic countries in adopting the euro. Entering the common European currency can give the country's economy an additional boost, with more foreign investment on the cards, especially from Sweden, Invest Lithuania said.

The period of dual circulation of litas and euro cash in Lithuania ended on 15 January.

Two weeks after the adoption of the euro, the single European currency now accounts for more than one-half, or some 60 percent, of cash in circulation in Lithuania, the central Bank of Lithuania said, reminding that Thursday is the last day when shoppers can use both currencies, the euro and the lit...

Euro area membership will give Lithuania more stability and security, European Council President Donald Tusk said in Vilnius on Wednesday.

Lithuania adopted the euro on 1 January 2015, thus becoming the 19th member of the euro area. With the dual circulation period ending on 15 January, a crucial part of the changeover will be completed this week, the European Commission said in a report.

After Lithuania adopted the euro, the number of millionaires - i.e., people with assets of over one million - in the country has gone down ten times.

The amount of euro cash in circulation in Lithuania has already exceeded the amount of litas cash in the market, the governor of the central Bank of Lithuania has said.

Lithuania has become the eurozone's 19th member, but only half of Lithuanians are in favour of the new currency. That will change, Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius told DW, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

In over slightly more than two months, 46,000 visitors from all over Lithuania visited the Euro Exhibition, which was open at the National Museum Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. It was arranged with a view to introducing in advance the population to the new currency, euras.lt reports.

The society's support for the euro in Lithuania rose 7 percentage points in December from November to reach 60 percent, according to a survey released by the Bank of Lithuania on Thursday.

The latest Eurobarometer survey shows that Lithuania's transition to the euro has been proceeding successfully and smoothly. No major violations were recorded in banks and retail trade networks, while cash payments in litas have reduced in the first days of January.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has congratulated Lithuania on becoming the 19th member of the euro area and says the accession marks the culmination of Lithuania's remarkable economic achievements.

Euros already account for nearly a third of all cash money in circulation in Lithuania, says Vitas Vasiliauskas, governor of the Bank of Lithuania.

Although Lithuania has been using the euro for less than a week, the police have already reported euro forgery cases.

Over the first four days after Lithuania's euro adoption, approximately 160 consumers file complaints with the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority (VVTAT) about violations of the Euro Adoption Law.

Lithuania's State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) has said that fraudsters pretending to work for the VMI have started visiting residents' houses, offering a "money inventory" service.

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem has congratulated Lithuania on joining the euro area.

The governor of the central Bank of Lithuania says there have been no major difficulties in the process of changeover to the euro, which the country adopted on the first day of 2015, the Verslo Žinios business daily reports.