Lithuania adopts 2014 budget with eye on euro

(VILNIUS) - Lithuania's parliament on Thursday approved a deficit-slashing budget for 2014, with the goal of bolstering the Baltic state's bid to join the eurozone.

The budget aims to narrow the public sector deficit to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), down from 2.9 percent this year.

Eighty-one lawmakers voted for it, while 32 voted against and 14 abstained.

Would-be eurozone members are required to pull their deficit under 3.0 percent in order to enter the currency union, which Lithuania expects to join in 2015.

"We are maintaining strict financial discipline," Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius told parliament.

The budget foresees nearly 31 billion litas (9 billion euros, $12 billion) in spending and 30 billion litas in revenue, with a growth forecast of 3.7 percent this year and 3.4 in 2014.

Lithuania is following in the footstep of its fellow Baltic states, after Estonia switched to the euro in 2011 and Latvia was given the greenlight to adopt it in January.

A nation of three million people, Lithuania will hand over the European Union's half-year rotating presidency to Greece in January.