| Baltic states are meeting most criteria required for entering the eurozone |
| Wednesday, 01 July 2009 13:31 | |||
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According to Märten Kross, Vice Governor of Eesti Pank, Baltic States are fulfilling Maastrict criteria, therefore they have an opportunity to enter the euro zone. According to Kross, according to the convergence reports of the European Commission, EC's spring 2009 forecast and Eesti Pank's own inflation assessment, Estonia should meet all five criteria (inflation, long-term interest rate, exchange rate, government deficit and public debt by the end of 2009).
Märten Kross, vice governor of the Estonian central bank Eesti Pank, said yesterday that Baltic states are meeting most criteria required for entering the eurozone. According to Kross, according to the convergence reports of the European Commission, EC's spring 2009 forecast and Eesti Pank's own inflation assessment, Estonia should meet all five criteria (inflation, long-term interest rate, exchange rate, government deficit and public debt by the end of 2009. Kross said that, as for Latvia, it is still unclear whether Latvia will meet the inflation and long-term interest rate criteria and there would be problems meeting the government deficit criteria. The same applies for Lithuania, said Kross. According to the central banker, during the last 12 years the business cycle synchronisation of the Baltic countries with the euro area has increased. In the last 10 years the structure of employment in the Baltic countries by six economic sectors has converged in Latvia and Lithuania and remained roughly the same in Estonia. Also the structure of exports in the Baltic countries during the last 10 years has significantly converted with the euro area. All three Baltic countries are very open and most of the trade is with EU countries. The labour market integration via labour mobility between countries of EU is quite high and the labourmarkets in Estonia and Lithuania are among the most flexible in the EU.
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