Lithuania PM vows to quit if 2015 euro target missed

(VILNIUS) - Lithuania's leftist prime minister vowed Tuesday to quit if his country failed to adopt the euro in 2015, as his four party coalition set aside differences over the unpopular move.

"Of course, I will. It is one of the strategic goals of this government," Social Democrat Premier Algirdas Butkevicius said in Vilnius when asked whether he would stake his office on euro adoption next year.

"I take personal responsibility," he told reporters as he announced his coalition had "agreed that the euro will be in Lithuania on January 1, 2015".

Butkevicius insists adopting the euro will boost the economy through easing trade, attracting foreign investment and job creation.

But 55 percent of Lithuanians oppose joining the troubled eurozone, compared to 41 percent who back it, according to a Eurobarometer survey from April 2013, the latest available.

A separate survey in January revealed that 60 percent of respondents feared price hikes after the swap.

Similar concerns swept Baltic neighbour Latvia as it became the eurozone's 18th member on January 1 as well as Estonia, which was the first ex-Soviet republic to join the debt-mired single currency in 2011.

Estonia saw average annual inflation leap to 5.0 percent in 2011 after 3.0 percent in 2010 and 0.1 percent in 2009, according to the Bank of Estonia. In 2012 prices rose by 3.9 percent.

Struggling to overcome debt woes, the eurozone has seen five of its members forced into painful bailouts since a crippling debt crisis erupted in 2009.

Economists say that Lithuania, an EU member of three million people since 2004, is on track to meet the bloc's tough targets on deficits and inflation this year.

The EU is set to decide whether to give it the green light on eurozone entry in 2015 by July this year.

European Council President Herman van Rompuy said Friday in Riga he expected "Lithuania to join already next year as the 19th (eurozone) member."