Lithuanians get 'euro starter kits' month before switch
Image Lietuvas Bankas
(VILNIUS) - Lithuanians on Monday began getting familiar with their new currency as one million "euro starter kits" filled with new coins went on sale ahead of the full switch over to the euro on January 1.
"Over 80 percent of the new euro coins have already been minted in Lithuania," central bank governor Vitas Vasiliauskas told reporters Monday as he presented the kits.
One million of them, each containing 11.59 euros ($14.47) in coins, are available to the public for purchase using the country's soon-to-be obsolete litas currency.
Vilnius resident Zaneta Kucinskaite was among the first to snap up the kits, buying five as Christmas gifts for her parents.
"I'm looking forward to the euro. We're in the European Union and I want conditions in our country to improve," she told AFP.
But Lithuanians are divided over the currency switch, with 47 percent supporting it and 49 percent opposed, mainly due to fears of price hikes, according to a Eurobarometer survey in September.
Fellow former Soviet-ruled Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia joined the European single currency in 2011 and 2014 respectively, eyeing improved investor confidence.
Now, amid widespread apprehension over a resurgent Russia and its role in the Ukraine crisis, Lithuania also sees eurozone integration as an added security guarantee along side membership of NATO.
"In terms of geo-politics, the euro will afford us greater security," President Dalia Grybauskaite said in July after her nation of three million people got the final green light from Brussels for entry in the eurozone.