Litháen frestar upptöku evru

Litháen ætlar að fresta upptöku evru en áætlanir gerðu ráð fyrir að evra yrði lögeyrir í Litháen árið 2014. Stjórnvöld óttast að evruvæðing hagkerfisins muni leiða til verri lífskjara, m.a. með því að lífeyrir lækki. Evruríkin eru 17 og glíma við margháttaðan vanda þar sem ein mynt þjónar ekki hagsmunum ólíkra hagkerfa.

Frestun Litháa á upptöku evru endurspeglar vaxandi óvissum um framtíð myntsvæðisins.

Samfylkingin telur evruna henta Íslendingum betur en krónan.

Athugasemdir

[Ragnhildur Kolka, 8.2.2011 kl. 18:51]

Samfylkingin er óþjóðlegur flokkur.

[Erla Magna Alexandersdóttir, 8.2.2011 kl. 20:10]

Hver andsk.... er að Íslendingum ? Er enginn gjalmiðill til umræðu en Evran ? Henni fylgja allskonar regluverk og undirlægjuháttur- því er ekki athugað að Kanadadollar er fastur og traustur gjaldmiðill svo og öll viðskifti við Kanada sem menn virðast ekki hafa áhuga fyrir vegna þess að einhver Evrópuglapi er í augum manna eins og var einusinni með Bandaríkjamenn- en- þeir fóru þegar þeim hentaði og skildu skítinn efit sig um allt

[Hrafn Arnarson (IP-tala skráð) 8.2.2011 kl. 20:54]

Hér er umrædd frétt.  Lithuania could delay its eurozone entry beyond a 2014 target in order to avoid cuts to state pensions in the government's ongoing austerity drive, President Dalia Grybauskaite said Monday.

"Lithuania is and will remain a country with the goal of adopting the euro and guaranteeing stable growth but as far as dates are concerned, I would not swear on one," Grybauskaite said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius.

Senior Lithuanian officials have repeatedly identified 2014 as a target date for their country's eurozone entry.

"We will introduce the euro when the conditions are objectively ripe in Lithuania, without having to sacrifice the living standards of pensioners," Grybauskaite said.

The president also asked Kubilius to set up a mechanism by January 1, 2012 to compensate pensioners who saw their monthly state benefit cut by an average five percent in 2010 amid a series of austerity measures designed to rein-in the public deficit.

Initial estimates show Lithuania's economy expanded by 1.2 percent last year, signalling a return to growth after a stinging 15 percent contraction in 2009.

An ex-Soviet republic of 3.3 million which joined the EU in 2004, Lithuania is set to take on the European Union's six-month rotating presidency in the second half of 2013.

[Gunnar Rögnvaldsson, 8.2.2011 kl. 22:00]

Litháen getur ekki sagt annað en "we could delay" því öllum löndum ESB er skylt að leggja niður sína eign mynt, afsala sér peningaútgáfuréttinum að fullu og öllu um alla framtíð, og taka upp mynt Evrópusambandsins.

Ef þeir hefðu sagt "we will delay" þá hefði komið bréf, ákæra og svo sekt frá fjárlagahersveitum friðar myntbandalagsins í Brussel.

Svo: "we could delay" er notað til að slá ryki í augu almennings í Litháen svo þjóðin uppgötvi ekki í praxís að hún er búin að missa fullveldið eina ferðina enn - og til að mýkja Brussel. 

[Hrafn Arnarson (IP-tala skráð) 8.2.2011 kl. 22:02]

Litháen gekk í ESB 2004 og það virðist hafa haft góð áhrif á efnahagslíf í landinu. Hagvöxtur var 8% fjögur ár í röð. Landið glímir nú við afleiðingar alþjóðlegrar fjármálakreppu eins og fleiri lönd. Hér er tilvitnun í örugga heimild Cia world factbook. ;

Lithuania gained membership in the World Trade Organization and joined the EU in May 2004. Despite Lithuania's EU accession, Lithuania's trade with its Central and Eastern European neighbors, and Russia in particular, accounts for a growing percentage of total trade. Privatization of the large, state-owned utilities is nearly complete. Foreign government and business support have helped in the transition from the old command economy to a market economy. Lithuania's economy grew on average 8% per year for the four years prior to 2008 driven by exports and domestic demand. However, GDP plunged nearly 15% in 2009 - during the 2008-09 crisis the three former Soviet Baltic republics had the world's worst economic declines. In 2009, the government launched a high-profile campaign, led by Prime Minister KUBILIUS, to attract foreign investment and to develop export markets. The current account deficit, which had risen to roughly 15% of GDP in 2007-08, recovered to a surplus of 4% 2009 and 3.5% in 2010 in the wake of a cutback in imports to almost half the 2008 level. Nevertheless, economic growth was flat and unemployment continued upward to 16% in 2010.

[Guðmundur 2. Gunnarsson (IP-tala skráð) 8.2.2011 kl. 22:06]

Bloomberg Fréttaveitan segir 15. september 2010.:

"Majorities across Europe view the euro as a “bad thing” in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis that rattled the continent, a survey showed.

Fifty-five percent of Europeans voiced negative sentiments about thecurrency, led by a 60 percent disapproval rate in France and 53 percent inGermany, according to a poll released today by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Italian foundation Compagnia di San Paolo."

Traust Þjóðverja í garð ESB og evru hríðfellur

26. janúar 2011

Ný könnun í Þýskalandi á vegum Allensbach-stofnunarinnar sýnir að Þjóðverjar bera nú minna traust til ESB en nokkru sinni fyrr.

63% þeirra sem svöruðu sögðust bera „lítið eða ekkert“ traust til ESB, í mars 2010 var þetta hlutfall 51%.

Aðeins 25% báru „mjög mikið eða mikið“ traust til evrópska samrunans, þetta hlutfall var 37% fyrir tíu mánuðum.

68% svarenda báru „lítið eða ekkert“ traust til evrunnar, sem er næstum sama hlutfall og fyrir sextán árum.

Er ekki nær að hlusta á "atvinnumennina" sem þurfa að notast við gjaldmiðilinn og búa í Evrópusambandsparadísinni í stað þessa holtaþokuvæls sófasérfræðinga ESB gerða út af Baugsfylkingunni?

[Gunnar Rögnvaldsson, 8.2.2011 kl. 22:14]

Nú, landið þarf þá ekki á hvorki ESB né evru að halda, því hagvöxtur var 10,7% árið 2003 og 7,6% árin 1997 og 1998 und so weiter. En árið 2009 var hann mínus 15,3% sem er nálægt heimsmeti í efnahagshruni. Það er ERM II fasi myntbandalagsins sem er að drepa Litháen í íbúa þess. 

Öll lönd sem sluppu undan fyrri tegund áætlunarbúskaparkerfis Evrópu, Sovétríkjunum, gátu ekki annað en fengið hagvöxt. Annað hefði verið ógerningur.  

Hættu að þvæla Hrafn.  

[Hrafn Arnarson (IP-tala skráð) 9.2.2011 kl. 07:47]

Gunnar Rögnvaldsson er lítill kall. Hann getur aldrei sleppt því að vera með skæting. Það sem ég er að gera hér að að kynna fyrir hugsanlegum lesendum staðreyndir málsins. Hér er ágætt lesefni frá utanríkisþjónustu BNA.;(http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5379.htm#econ)

ECONOMY
In the second half of the 20th century, the Lithuanian economy underwent fundamental transformations. The Soviet occupation of 1940 brought Lithuania intensive industrialization and economic integration into the U.S.S.R., although the level of technology and state concern for environmental, health, and labor issues lagged far behind Western standards. Urbanization increased from 39% in 1959 to 68% in 1989. From 1949 to 1952 the Soviets abolished private ownership in agriculture, establishing collective and state farms. Production declined and did not reach pre-war levels until the early 1960s. The intensification of agricultural production through intense chemical use and mechanization eventually doubled production but created additional ecological problems.

The disadvantages of a centrally planned economy became evident after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, when Lithuania began its transition to a market economy. Owing to the availability of inexpensive natural resources, the industrial sector had become excessively energy intensive, inefficient in its utilization of resources, and incapable of manufacturing internationally competitive products. More than 90% of Lithuania's trade was with the rest of the U.S.S.R., which supplied Lithuanian industry with raw materials for production and a market for its outputs. The need to sever these trading links and to reduce the inefficient industrial sector led to serious economic difficulties.

The process of privatization and the development of new companies slowly moved Lithuania from a command economy toward a free market. By 1998, the economy had survived the early years of uncertainty and several setbacks, including a banking crisis, and seemed poised for solid growth. However, the collapse of the Russian ruble in August 1998 shocked the economy into negative growth and forced the reorientation of trade from Russia toward the West. In 1997, exports to former Soviet states were 45% of total Lithuanian exports. In 2006, exports to the East (the Commonwealth of Independent States--CIS) were only 21% of the total, while exports to the EU-25 were 63%, and to the United States, 4.3%.

At the end of 2008, Lithuania had accumulated foreign direct investments (FDI) of $12.1 billion, with U.S. investments amounting to $314 million, or 2.6% of FDI. The current account deficit in the third quarter of 2009 was 2.9% of GDP. Lithuania has privatized nearly all formerly state-owned enterprises. More than 79% of the economy's output is generated by the private sector. The share of employees in the private sector exceeds 65%. The Government of Lithuania completed banking sector privatization in 2001, with 89% of this sector controlled by foreign--mainly Scandinavian--capital. "Lithuanian Railways" and Lithuanian Post are the only remaining state-owned companies that may be offered for privatization in the near future.
After joining the EU in 2004, Lithuania saw its economy boom, reaching a record 8.9% GDP growth in 2007. Strong growth continued through much of 2008, but a weak fourth quarter, as financial stress spread through Europe, slowed growth to 3.0% for the year. In 2009, the global financial crisis hit the Lithuanian economy hard: the economy shrank by 15%, unemployment climbed to 13.7%, and salaries fell by 12.3%, the worst performance since comparable records began in 1995. Growing unemployment and lower income contributed to some limited social unrest in early 2009. That same year the government approved heavy budget cuts and passed a $2.3 billion stimulus plan. Lithuania’s GDP is now expected to demonstrate weak growth in 2010.