Fitch: Romania could join the euro zone in 2015

Joi, 16 aprilie 2009, 15:00 English | Business

Romania could adopt the euro in 2015 together with Bulgaria, a press release of the Fitch rating agency reads. The company underlines that it does not expect the EU to slacken euro zone requirements and that the company's ratings for Eastern Europe do not take into account their expectations to enter the euro zone if they do not comply with Maastricht criteria.

Head of the Emerging Europe Sovereigns department Edward Parker declared that the EU will not give up its Maastricht criteria because EU states are afraid that these countries will not be capable or even able to pay the economic and political price of the adjustments needed. Plus, European authorities do not want to deepen the crisis in the euro zone.

Fitch considers that Eastern European countries joining the euro zone will have positive consequences that will reduce the risks of new monetary crises. Plus, country ratings will increase automatically once the countries would join the euro zone.

The rating agency estimates that Romania and Bulgaria will join the euro zone in 2015 while Estonia, Lithuania and Poland in 2013 and the Czech Republic and Hungary in 2014.