Lithuanian public support for the euro remains the lowest in the eurozone, even though it has risen over the last year, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey published last week.
Just under half (49 percent) of people in Lithuania said in October that having the European Union's common currency was beneficial for their country, up by 7 percentage points from the same period last year.
Thirty-seven percent of people surveyed in Lithuania said the euro wasn't good for the country, and 12 percent had no opinion.
Linas Jurkšas, an economist from the central Bank of Lithuania, notes that public support for the euro has been growing over the past two years, and that is related to economic growth.
“People feel in their purses the effects of economic growth in the country, as the average household income has increased over the last couple of years, and that is indirectly linked to the euro,” Jurkšas told BNS.
Lithuania adopted the euro in 2015. The five years in the eurozone made Lithuanians appreciate the benefits of having the common currency, he says, including not having to exchange currencies while travelling and easier business transactions with other eurozone countries.
The survey of 1,000 people was carried out on October 14-18.
Ireland had the highest public support for the euro, with 88 percent of the population agreeing that it is good for their country. In Latvia, support for the euro stands at 63 percent and in Estonia, 69 percent.
Sixty-five percent of the respondents in the euro area said the common currency was good for their country, one point up from 2018, and 26 percent believed the opposite.
LRT English Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
