In the new year, one more EU nation has joined the euro area. On January 1, 2014, Latvia has officially become the member of the eurozone. As a matter of course, the main condition for complete European integration was the introduction of the single European currency. Now, financial markets start using euros and citizens fill their wallets with the EU national currency. According to the monetary reform plan, former national currency will be taken out of circulation until January 15, 2014. Latvians seem to be unhappy with the innovation. Thus, during the first days of the introduction of euros, major retailers and entrepreneurs began to bump up food prices.
After the Cyprus pound and Maltese lira were replaced by the euro, the Latvian lat became the most valuable currency in Europe. 1 Latvian lat is equal to 1.96 U.S. dollars and 1.19 British pounds. The most valuable 500 lat banknote will no longer exist as well. It equals almost 983 U.S. dollars. Latvian lat is not the only currency that was in circulation in the country. From 1992 to 1993, there were Latvian rubles, widely known as repshiki by the name of Latvia’s bank governor. To date, the European single currency brings together 18 states with over 325 million people. There are several EU members that has not joined the euro area but obliged to do it in future. They are Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The United Kingdom and Denmark are also the EU nations; however, they are not going to adopt euros. The UK uses the British pound; while Denmark’s national currency is the Danish krone.
