Euro adoption

A number of Lithuanians have already turned to the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority (VVTAT) over change given in litas instead of euros in some of the major shopping centres.

As of Saturday, residents of Lithuania have exchanged about 40 million litas (EUR 11.6m) in post offices of Lithuania, said Inga Dundulienė, the head of the Network Service of Lietuvos Paštas (Lithuanian Post).

Residents of Lithuania have started exchanging their savings in litas to euros. A total of 330 post offices will be exchanging litas to euros free of charge from 2 January.

The first day of this year is the first day of Lithuania with the euro. It is an unavoidable fact, although probably everyone is already tired of hearing the word euro. I must admit: it is certainly much better that the euro is not in everyone’s lips but in everyone’s pockets. Soon enough the curren...

The Lithuanian Gay League, an LGBT rights NGO, has had an idea to keep some of the 10-litas notes and make them into souvenirs for their partners.

Some 10 million litas (EUR 2.9m) were exchanged for euros at Lithuanian banks on Thursday, the day when the country officially adopted the EU's single currency, the central bank governor said on Friday morning.

The adoption of the euro in Lithuania was smooth and successful, regardless of interruptions on the last day of 2014, Vitas Vasiliauskas, governor of the central Bank of Lithuania, said on Thursday.

After starting to use the new currency, the euro, on Thursday, Lithuanians say they will have to remember maths at the beginning of the year to calculate the prices of goods. They will be able to pay in litas until mid-January, but will receive all change in the common currency of the European Union...

Lithuania's government hopes that the euro adopted on Thursday will guarantee economic and political security for Lithuania, while the neighboring countries see the accession as an achievement of the entire euro zone.

Many Lithuanians once sceptical of the euro are now ready to embrace it. Lithuania this night will become the 19th member of the euro zone.

Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma (Unity) has congratulated Lithuania with its accession to the euro zone on 1 January 2015, the government's press service informed LETA.

By joining the euro zone, Lithuania is becoming part of an area of stability, security and prosperity, says European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici.

What kind of a country bids farewell to its currency for the third time over less than 25 years?

On Wednesday, Lithuania is bidding farewell to its national currency, the litas, and welcoming the common European Union (EU) currency, the euro, which will be adopted on 1 January 2015.

As Lithuania is to become the 19th member of the euro zone on 1 January, Lithuanian Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius admits that he has not yet got accustomed to the euro and price tags in two currencies still puzzle him.

The euro which will shortly replace the litas will have a positive effect on the IT services market of Lithuania, however, it will hardly bring any significant changes. Antanas Ursulis, general manager of CSC Baltic which provides IT services, says that the euro will not bring any dramatic changes t...

Lithuanians are trying to get rid of cash litas before the official date of the euro adoption. On 29 December alone LTL 27 million (EUR 7.8 million) was deposited in SEB Bank's ATMs. This is nearly four times more than on an average day. On 29 December the number of customers in the bank's branches ...

Adopting the euro will benefit Lithuania's domestic businesses and households and will also help lure more foreign investment to the country, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has said. He has recalled the initial difficulties of convincing other politicians to have the euro which almost cost him ...

Changeover to the euro and the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, as a sign of the country’s growing energy independence from Russia, have become Lithuania’s top projects of 2014, Prime Minister has said.

Lithuania’s commercial banks have already sub-frontloaded nearly one-fifth of euro coins and banknotes to domestic companies, the governor of the central Bank of Lithuania has said.