Slovenia is likely to get the green light today to start using the euro next January.
Slovenia's finance minister was quoted yesterday as saying that his country was fulfilling the Maastricht criteria and had a good chance of joining the euro zone next year.
"The objective data shows that Slovenia has fulfilled the Maastricht criteria for introduction of the euro," Minister Andre Bajuk said in an interview.
The average inflation rate that the EU requires from countries hoping to adopt the euro is 2.6 per cent, but Lithuania's rate for the year to March was 2.7 per cent
Mr Bajuk pointed out that the country's state budget deficit in March was 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product, well below the Maastricht ceiling of 3.0 per cent.
Slovenia aims to introduce the euro in 2007 and hopes to receive a green light from the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
The richest republic of former Yugoslavia, Slovenia escaped the worst of the Balkan wars in the 1990s and embarked on a period of steady growth and relatively low inflation and unemployment.
Economists credit its government with retaining control of major state assets and keeping a tight rein on public spending and currency inflation.