Romanian Govt Plans To Speed Up Euro Adoption

“This process should be accelerated, this is on the Government’s agenda, and we already have a strategy to speed up the euro-area entry process earlier than 2014,” Boc said.

A country has to meet several criteria as regards inflation, budget deficit, public debt, currency exchange rate and interest rates in order to enter the euro area.

Inflation has to be lower by less than 1.5 percentage points than the average inflation level of the lowest rate in three EU member states, while the budget deficit should not be higher than 3% of the gross domestic product, or GDP.

In the same time, the external debt should not be higher than 60% of the GDP and in the last two years, the currency’s exchange rate has to fluctuate between a 15% margin versus a set value of the euro, in the ERM II.

Thus, Romania should enter ERM II by 2012, according to the current calendar.