Op 1 mei 2004 trad Letland toe tot de Europese Unie. Op 2 mei 2005 trad Letland samen met Cyprus en Malta toe tot het wisselkoersmechanisme II (ERM II). Cyprus en Malta zijn hier sinds 1 januari 2008 weer uit, aangezien zij toen toetraden tot de eurozone als respectievelijk 14e en 15e land.
De planning van Letland was om op 1 januari 2008 teo te treden, wat helaas niet haalbaar bleek. Doelstelling is nu 1 januari 2011, maar het is waarschijnlijker dat het ná 2012 pas toetreedt tot de eurolanden.
Op 21 juli 2006 werden de ontwerpen voor de euromunten uit Letland openbaar gemaakt. Op de 1 en 2 euromunt staat de Letse Maagd afgebeeld. Op de 10, 20 en 50 eurocent staat het grote wapenschild van Letland afgebeeld en op de 1, 2 en 5 eurocent het wapen van Letland.
Hieronder de afbeeldingen van toekomstige euromunten uit Letland. De 2 euromunt is later gewijzigd.
Originele 2 euromunt Letland
2 euromunt Letland
1 euromunt Letland
10, 20 en 50 eurocent Letland
1, 2 en 5 eurocent Letland
Net als bij Estland en Litouwen kunnen we ook bij deze Baltische staat nog wel even wachten tot ze kunnen worden toegevoegd aan de collectie!
Paul...
Laatst gewijzigd door euromunter op 04 dec 2009, 10:37, 2 keer totaal gewijzigd.
De Letse economie heeft de afgelopen jaren voortdurend hoge consumptiecijfers en groei laten zien. Het gevaar dat de Letse economie hierdoor uit balans kon raken, moest niet worden onderschat. Een oplopende inflatie, de oververhitte arbeidsmarkt, torenhoge consumptie, gepaard gaande met groeiende kredieten en het stijgende tekort van bijna 23 procent op de lopende rekening in 2007, zijn factoren die tot oververhitting kunnen leiden. Door de opgelopen inflatie schuift de invoering van de euro steeds verder op en wordt een officiële streefdatum niet meer genoemd. De euro zal zeker niet voor 2013 kunnen worden geïntroduceerd.
In 2007 is het Letse bbp nog toegenomen met 10,2 procent, waarmee de Letse economie tot de snelst groeiende economieën in de EU behoorde. De economische groei van de afgelopen drie jaar bedroeg gemiddeld 11 procent. Een dergelijk hoog percentage over langere tijd is economisch niet houdbaar. De uitkomst voor 2008 moet fors naar beneden worden bijgesteld en in plaats van een economische groei is er thans sprake van een afname van het bbp met 0,8 procent. De voorspelde harde landing van de Letse economie lijkt te zijn ingezet. Opvallend zijn de grote contrasten. Een middenweg lijkt er niet te zijn: armoede versus rijkdom, letterlijk te zien op straat. Ook in de onderlinge vergelijking van de steden bestaan grote contrasten: Liepaja versus Ventspils. In de havenstad Liepaja moet er nog veel gebeuren op het gebied van infrastructuur, terwijl de 100 km noordelijker gelegen havenstad Ventspils een toonbeeld is van economische herstructurering. Ventspils beschikt over een volledig gemoderniseerde infrastructuur en heeft een reeks fraaie collectieve voorzieningen, die zelfs voor West-Europese steden nauwelijks denkbaar zijn.
De Letse economie kent een omvangrijk zwart circuit, dat naar schatting tussen de 20 en 40 procent van het nationale product ligt. Er is sprake van een wijdverbreide praktijk van aanvullingen op het salaris (envelope money), die buiten het zicht van de fiscus worden gehouden en de officiële cijfers vertekenen.
Inflatie
In Letland is sprake van een oplopende inflatie. Omdat het percentage ver buiten de grenzen van de Maastrichtcriteria valt, vereist een goed functioneren van het anti-inflatieplan alle aandacht, temeer daar er ook inflatoire druk van de koppeling van de lat aan de euro uitgaat. Enkele oorzaken van de hoge inflatie zijn kenmerkend voor de Letse maatschappij, zoals minder kritische en weinig prijsbewuste consumenten, nauwelijks concurrentie tussen winkels onderling en het in korte tijd loslaten van gereguleerde prijzen, die vooral op energiegebied voor de consument tot verdubbeling van de energietarieven hebben geleid. Ook de prijzen voor voeding zijn sterk gestegen. Na voorgaande jaren met gemiddelden van 6 tot 8 procent inflatie is het inflatiepercentage sterk gestegen, met als voorlopig hoogtepunt 15,9 procent gemiddeld over 2008.
Euro in 2014 "at the earliest", says Latvian central bank
The central bank in Latvia put its hopes for the euro on hold Thursday, admitting that the pan-European currency would not replace the lat as legal tender until 2014 at the earliest.
The prospect of large budget deficits in coming years means meeting the Maastricht criteria that regulate euro adoption is highly unlikely, the central bank believes.
In December 2008, the Latvian government agreed a 7.5-billion-euro (10-billion-dollar) bailout package with international lenders including the European Commission (EC) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) which identified euro adoption as a key priority.
However, the Latvian economy has performed much worse than expected since the deal was signed, contracting by 18 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
Now even huge public spending cuts have not been enough to balance the books, and the government expects to run a budget deficit of around 10 per cent of GDP this year.
"It was envisioned in the programme for economic stabilization... the changeover to the euro could take place in 2012-2013," said a statement from the bank.
"This programme, however, is not realistic. The budget deficit level that would comply with the criterion for common currency introduction, i. e. 3 per cent of GDP, is now projected for as late as 2012, which means that the euro could be introduced in 2014 at the earliest," the statement says.
Uncertainty as to when the euro changeover will take place creates "feelings of insecurity both in entrepreneurs and the general population as well as investors," the bank continued.
It urged the government of Prime Minister Valdis Domrovskis to set a target date for achieving all Maastricht criteria.
Latvia had hoped to adopt the euro in 2008, four years after being admitted to the European Union.
However, runaway inflation made early adoption impossible and ever since then the date has been slipping backwards.
Neighbouring Estonia harbours hopes of adopting the euro in 2011, while Lithuania regards 2012-13 as a realistic target.
Latvia May Adopt Euro After 2015, Swedbank’s Hermansson Says
Latvia may adopt the euro after 2015, at least a year later than its 2014 target date to switch currencies as part of plan with its international lenders, said Swedbank AB’s chief economist Cecilia Hermansson.
Latvia has “a fair chance that they can make this and get the budget deficit down and get the debt down and get into the euro maybe in a few years, sometime maybe after 2015-2016 or so,” Hermansson told reporters in Moscow today.
The Baltic country’s parliament is planning to pass next year’s budget, containing tax increases and spending cuts totaling about 500 million lati ($1.1 billion), to meet the terms of the nation’s 7.5 billion-euro ($11.2 billion) international loan. The country plans to tax real estate, capital gains, earned interest income, deposits and to raise its flat tax rate in addition to spending cuts.
Latvia and the other Baltic states are in for some “internal devaluation, which means they are shrinking their economies without changing their exchange rates,” Hermansson said. Without Latvia’s international loan, worth about one-third of gross domestic product, “I think you already would have seen a devaluation,” she said.
Latvia’s economy, which contracted 18.4 percent in the third quarter, may have a “slight turnaround during next year,” Hermansson said. The economies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania “are back to the level when they went into the EU,” she said.
De ontwerpen beloven in ieder geval wat goeds want ik vind het mooie munten.
Gr. Alfred
Papiergeld Nederland, Hongarije, Wereld (1 biljet of met opeenvolgende serienummers/land), 0 eurobiljetten, Euromunten + coincards Nederland. Miniatuurauto's en speldjes uit nostalgie Lid IBNS: 668 Lid Forum: 171
2.3.
Latvia
Based on the Latvian Convergence Programme 2009-2012 and the Stabilisation and Economic Growth Restoration Programme, the Latvian government set 1 January 2014 as the target date for the introduction of the euro.
The Public Awareness and Communication Working Group has completed an update of the Euro Communication Strategy and developed the corresponding communication plan. Both documents were discussed during the twinning project with the National Bank of Belgium (ended at the end of 2009) and supported by the European Commission. The national changeover web site (www.eiro.lv), launched in December 2008, remains the main source of information for the general public.
After being one of the first EU countries in need of a bail-out in 2008, Latvia is slowly recovering and aiming to join the eurozone on 1 January 2014, despite current problems in the single currency area, the country's newly elected president told this website.
"Personally I'm very optimistic we'll join the euro on 1 January 2014. It's our goal and we are working hard to implement this process", Andris Berzins said while on his first courtesy visit to Brussels earlier this week.
He added that the accession of his country to the single currency area would be "of course dependent of the eurozone stability, which I hope will come by the end of the year".
The remarkable turn of Latvia's economy, now having a growth rate of five percent after an 18 percent contraction in 2009, is mainly due to a harsh austerity program accompanying a €7.5 billion EU-IMF bail-out agreed in December 2008.
Unemployment, however, was the price to pay, with Latvia having 16.2 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the second-highest rate in the EU after Spain. But EU statistics also show that unemployment is decreasing rapidly compared to last year, when the rate was almost 20 percent.
Berzins, a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers party, says that people living in the countryside are the most affected and that is why his message to the EU is not to cut back on farm subsidies in the next seven-year budget.
"For Latvia the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is very important. Particularly the direct payments per hectare, to keep employment in the rural areas", he said.
A country of 2.2 million people, Latvia still relies heavily on agriculture, with almost 50 percent of the population residing in rural areas. "And our countryside regions are the most affected by the budget consolidation process. We still have the situation that people are leaving Latvia to find better place, we have to stop that and bring them back", the president said.
As for the situation in Greece, Berzins, a former privatisation manager, said that "it would be more than useful to get answers how it happened, why they were able to go so deep and not stopped earlier. It means the European Central Bank didn't act in the best way, allowing such a high debt for Greece".
In his view, creating more control mechanisms in the eurozone is necessary to prevent another Greek scenario from happening again.
"Eurozone leaders have announced they will be very strict in this consolidation process, but it's not the easiest and it takes time step by step in reducing this big debt burden. Latvia managed in relatively short time, but the situation is still complicated and we have to find ways for future growth in our country", he noted.
As for neighbouring Estonia, who became a member of the eurozone at the beginning of this year, Berzins said that it is "too early" to say if that move had a positive impact on trade relations with Latvia.
"I hope this is a very positive example for all three Baltic states and that is an explanation why we are ready to follow. We were together, we are together and we remain the closest economic partners", he stresse
Latvia to Contribute to Bailouts Upon 2014 Euro Entry, FAZ Says
Latvia plans to join the euro area in 2014 and is willing to pay its share in any future bailouts of indebted nations, central bank Governor Ilmars Rimsevics told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview.
“I believe that the latest measures in Italy, Spain and Ireland will be successful but even if new difficulties should arise, we are willing to make our contribution, even if it is relatively small,” Rimsevics was quoted as saying. “It would be naive to think that a crisis in the euro area won’t spread to neighboring countries.”
It was a “big mistake” for Greece to delay adjustment measures, Rimsevics said. “Unfortunately, there is little hope” for the country as a result, he said, according to the newspaper.
...
The Baltic Course schreef:
Swedish finance minister urges Latvia not to delay its goal of joining eurozone
During a meeting with Latvian Finance Minister Andris Vilks (Unity) in Riga yesterday, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg urged Latvia not to delay its goal of joining the eurozone in 2014, LETA was informed by the Finance Ministry.
During the meeting, Borg wished to hear Latvia's vision and predictions on economic development. Vilks informed about Latvia's accomplishments, and confirmed that Latvia has learned from the crisis and taken care of the problems that other European countries are going through at the moment.
At the same time, the Latvian side confirmed that the eventual goal is to achieve a balanced budget, as well as controlled and stringent financial discipline.
For his part, the Swedish finance minister pointed out that Sweden had to solve the consequences of a financial crisis in the 1990s, and implemented stringent financial discipline to overcome it.
Borg also emphasized that even after the successful conclusion of the international loan program, Latvia must put forward specific goals and move towards joining the eurozone in two years. Latvia should not postpone the implementation of this goal.
As reported, Borg is in Riga today to meet with Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity), Bank of Latvia President Ilmars Rimsevics, and Finance Minister Andris Vilks.
During the Riga visit, Borg will also read a lecture on solutions to the economic crisis in Europe at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.
Ik vind het wel mooie ontwerpen. Ik zag nu dat Litouwen en Andorra in 2015 gaan komen (ik hou het niet allemaal heel precies bij). Dan kan ik vast ruimte maken in het album.
Ik vraag me nou alleen af hoe ik erbij kom dat kroatië erbij zou komen...
Pecunia olet, sed vos adepto usus ad eam
winnaar van de munthunter-vrouwen EK-2017 voetbalpool
Kroatië treed per 1 juli 2013 tot de Europese Unie. Alvorens zij de euro kunnen invoeren zullen zij aan een groot aantal richtlijnen en criteria moeten voldoen. Daarnaast zullen zij ook 2 jaar lang hun valuta moeten koppelen aan de euro in het ERM II systeem.
In 2014 kunnen we tevens nieuwe nationale munten verwachten van Vaticaanstad en Nederland. Wanneer ook België een nieuw staatshoofd krijgt zullen er in 2014 ook nieuwe Belgische munten verschijnen.
