Estonia remains on track for switching to euro in 2007 - government

Estonian prime minister Juhan Parts said this week that Estonia was on track with its monetary integration into the eurozone states.

Parts said that Estonia would be ready to adopt the European single currency in 2007.

Estonia joined the European Union in May 2004 and entered the ERM-II mechanism in June.

There are still some clouds in the sky for the government. One of such is its sizeable current account deficit and extremely rapid credit growth.

The government says it is aware of the need to restrict domestic demand and to curb inflationary pressures.

Experts point out that otherwise Estonia's economic performance has recently been impressive, and it is considered a front-runner among all the new EU member states for adopting the euro. In contrast to several other EU countries, Estonia has run fiscal surpluses over the past years.

Source : BBN