Roundup: 100 days into Lithuanian euro adoption litas almost out of circulation, public positive

The heads of Lithuanian economy and finance said on Thursday that the first 100 days of the euro in Lithuania was marked with a well-organized adoption process, increased support for the currency, and avoided price increase.

The coordinating committee on the introduction of the euro headed by the prime minister, the finance minister and the governor of the Bank of Lithuania met on Thursday for what is probably the last time to sum up the process of the euro adoption.

The committee concluded that the euro adoption in Lithuania was "perfectly coordinated and well organized," and the most active phase of the currency changeover was now completed.

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius emphasized that 92 percent of Lithuanians felt very well or well informed on the euro adoption, according to the European Commission's public opinion analysis agency Eurobarometer.

"Already, 68 percent of residents view the adoption of the euro in Lithuania either positively or more positively. Compared to last December's survey, the number of those supporting the euro introduction increased by 8 percentage points, while the number of those skeptical decreased from 30 percent to 26 percent," the prime minister told journalists after the meeting.

According to Butkevicius, the active phase of the currency changeover is completed since the majority of litas, Latvia's former currency, are already out of circulation.

According to Vitas Vasiliauskas, the governor of the Bank of Lithuania, euros currently amount to 88 percent of cash market circulation.

"In total, there are 1.8 billion euros (about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars) in cash market circulation. Around 1.6 billion from that amount are in euros. From that amount, there are still litas in circulation worth around 220 million euros," said Vasiliauskas.

According to the Bank of Lithuania, 15 percent of litas banknotes and around 70 percent of coins still haven't been returned to the bank's money vaults.

Finance Minister Rimantas Sadzius pointed out that Lithuania had so far spent less on the euro adoption than other member countries of the eurozone. According to the minister, other countries spent on average around one euro per person to inform about the euro introduction while Lithuania's costs accounted to 80 euro cents per person.

According to Sadzius, the euro adoption hadn't yet led to the widely feared increase in prices.

"Today we can conclude that there wasn't any price increase linked to the euro adoption. The memorandum of the good business practice signed by more than 5,000 business entities controlling around 14,000 shopping and servicing places, I think, proved to be effective," said Sadzius.

According to the finance minister, the number of entities joining the initiative was four times as large as in Latvia, which adopted the euro a year ago, and 10 times larger than in Estonia, which joined the currency block in 2011.

According to the press release from the government, the prices of 100 most essential consumer staples decreased during the first months after the euro adoption.

The committee also decided not to extend the period of marking prices in both currencies.

On Friday, April 10, Lithuania will mark its first 100 days of the euro adoption. The country joined the eurozone on Jan. 1, 2015, becoming the 19th member of the single currency bloc. Endit