Two decades after leaving the Soviet Union, Latvia was in
2012 an E.U. state preparing to adopt the euro currency. “We want to be a part
of the core of Europe,” Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said. Noting that the
GDP was forecast to rise 5% in 2012, he could boast that his state would be an
asset to the “Eurozone.” Indeed, only three of the 17 states using the euro—Finland,
Luxembourg and Estonia—were expected to have budget deficits of less than 3% of
GDP and debt of less than 60 percent—the two key requirements for joining the
euro, which Latvia was poised to meet.
