La Lituania non aderirirà ad un "doloroso" calendario di adozione dell'euro che reprimere la domanda e fa male all'economia, ha detto il primo ministro Andrius Kubilius .
Il ministro delle Finanze Ingrida Simonyte ha detto che la Lituania probabilmente non riuscirà a rispettare la procedura dell'Unione europea per i disavanzi eccessivi, che chiede al governo di ridurre il disavanzo sotto il 3 per cento del prodotto interno lordo entro il 2011, pertanto l'adozione dell'euro è improbabile prima del 2013.
Si ribadisce che non si ritiene di dover svalutare la moneta, condizione questa gradita al FMI.
Gente seria i lituani.
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Lithuania won’t adhere to a “painful” euro adoption schedule that would quell demand and hurt the economy, Prime Minister
Andrius Kubilius said.
The former Soviet state will probably fail to comply with the European Union’s excessive deficit procedure, which calls on the government to bring the gap within 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2011, Finance Minister
Ingrida Simonyte said in an interview yesterday. Euro adoption is unlikely before 2013, she said.
“Those are very ambitious measures, very painful measures, and of course there are some limits to what you can implement,” Kubilius said in an interview in London yesterday. The goal is “not killing the whole economy and the stability in your society when you are cutting expenditures, wages and pensions.”
The economy of the Baltic state, which abandoned communism in 1991, contracted 14.3 percent last quarter as the government pushed through budget cuts equivalent to 8 percent of
gross domestic product this year. Even after the austerity measures, Lithuania will post a deficit of 9.7 percent in 2011, compared with 9.8 percent this year, the European Commission estimates.
Lithuania, which pegs the litas to the euro, needs the euro “as soon as possible, but possibilities have very practical limits and practical measures that should be implemented,” Kubilius said.
More Cuts
The government has proposed budget cuts for 2010 worth 5 percent of GDP that target social benefits, such as maternity and jobless pay and pensions.
Credit-default swap spreads on five-year Lithuanian debt jumped 19.08 basis points, to 343.01 basis points yesterday, the highest since Sept. 10, according to CMA DataVision prices. A wider spread reflects investor perceptions of higher risk.
Lithuania is lagging behind neighboring Estonia, which is set to join the single currency bloc in January 2011 after its government used years of budget surpluses to build up reserves, leaving public finances intact even after the credit crisis engulfed its economy. Latvia has said its economic collapse will prevent it from joining the euro region before 2014.
All three countries enjoyed a property and income boom after joining the EU in 2004. The credit crisis laid to waste the debt-fueled surge in wealth that followed EU accession and the three states are now mired in the bloc’s deepest recessions.
Debt Sales
“We would be very happy if our neighbors, Estonia, are able to have the euro much earlier,” Kubilius said. “It will show us very clearly what different policies Estonia and Lithuania were implementing during the last four, five years. Estonia had very strict fiscal control and surpluses in their budget, and we had deficits. Now, during the recession and financial crisis, that makes quite a big difference. Estonia is fighting to keep the deficit below 3 percent and we are fighting to keep it below 9 percent.”
Lithuania will probably return to international markets to sell bonds by next spring and again in the second half of the year, Simonyte said yesterday. She declined to specify the size or currency of any potential debt sale.
Unlike neighboring Latvia, Lithuania won’t go to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance as it’s able to fund itself through capital markets, Kubilius said.
“The policies required by the IMF or the EU we can implement ourselves, therefore we have possibilities to borrow in international markets,” Kubilius said. “Those possibilities are becoming better and better as the price for borrowing is decreasing. We hope that during next year the price will go down even more.”
Lithuania raised $1.5 billion on Oct. 7 in its biggest-ever debt sale with the notes priced to yield 462.5 basis more than U.S. Treasuries.
