2015-01-15
On Friday, 16 January, the dual circulation period, which lasted for 15 days after the euro adoption, ends and the sole legal tender for cash payments will be the euro.
“Currently, according to value, the euro in circulation exceeds litas by 1.5 times. In Lithuania the euro will prevail quietly and consistently, people are getting used to the new currency, which smoothly replaced the litas, which has been in circulation for more than two decades,” claims Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.
On Thursday, with the start of the last day of dual circulation, the number of euro in circulation already greatly exceeds the amount of litas. In the morning of 15 January there was EUR 1.455 billion (59%) and EUR 0.991 billion (41%) in litas in circulation.
On 1–14 January 2015, LTL 2.4 billion (22.2 million banknotes and 38.8 million coins) were withdrawn from circulation. Over more than a year, from 1 January 2014, LTL 8.5 billion was withdrawn from circulation — 421.6 tonnes of litas coins and 61.2 tonnes of litas banknotes were accepted from the population.
The turning point, when euro cash in circulation exceeded litas in circulation, took place a week prior, on Friday, 9 January. During the second week of January, the volumes of litas exchanged into euro began to decrease. One of the reasons — the population heard the encouragement to not rush to exchange litas into euro unless necessary, as they will be exchanged free of charge for a long time.
At Lithuania Post offices and some credit unions, litas will be exchanged into euro until 1 March 2015. Almost 350 branches of commercial banks will exchange litas free of charge for half a year, 89 branches — for the whole second half of 2015 (only banknotes). At the Bank of Lithuania, litas will be exchanged into euro free of charge for an unlimited time and without a limit on the amount.
On 1–13 January 2015, LTL 1.74 billion was exchanged into euro. Residents over this period have executed almost 672 thousand currency exchange operations. On the last day of the dual circulation period, each Lithuanian citizen, on average, has banknotes valuing EUR 455.07 and coins valuing EUR 23.89.
At the cash offices of the Bank of Lithuania in Vilnius and Kaunas, on 1–13 January, almost 31 million litas were exchanged into euro. Adding together all of the branches of commercial banks, LTL 1.236 billion were exchanged into euro, or 71 per cent of all exchanged litas; at the Lithuania Post — LTL 465.9 million, or almost 27 per cent of all exchanged litas. At credit unions, LTL 6.772 million were exchanged.
Over the first thirteen days of January, about LTL 185.5 million, or EUR 36 million, were deposited in ATMs. Over this period, EUR 262.2 million were withdrawn from ATMs.
