Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Lithuania, Wages

"The fiscal deficit will have to remain at the projected level, that is, at 2.5% of GDP. Our goal for Lithuania has always been to have the euro () given the macroeconomic challenges and the financial outlook for 2013, the euro adoption is possible from 2015. The upcoming year is going to present challenges to Lithuania, in particular, those related to inflation curbing. We understand very well that prices of some of the monopolist services providers will go up, product prices have already been increasing, therefore we will face a serious challenge how to amortize the growth of prices via production promotion," he said Monday morning, reports LETA/ELTA.

Butkevicius says that the Social Democrats' priorities in drafting a new budget will be housing renovation, using the EU funds for heating sector reform to shift to biofuels, increasing the minimum monthly wage from LTL 850 (EUR 246) to LTL 1,000 (EUR 290) as of January 1 of 2013, preparation for Lithuania's presidency of the EU Council.

When asked how much the raise of the minimum monthly wage is going to cost to Lithuania, he said that all the relevant calculation would be done in a few days.