A new year has commenced and the eurozone has grown by another member country – Lithuania. The last of the three Baltic states to enter the eurozone, Lithuania is the 19th country to adopt the common European currency.
And for Lithuania, the decision to join the eurozone appears to have been a simple one. In 2002, Lithuania pegged the litas, its currency from 1993 until the end of 2014, to the euro – two years before even becoming a member of the EU – making the transition easier than many other countries have experienced. Added to this, Estonia’s eurozone entry in 2011 and the 2014 addition of Latvia harnessed a number of benefits that Lithuania is hoping to emulate.