The condition for euro adoption is the fulfilment of the following convergence criteria:
- High degree of price stability: the rate of inflation, calculated as a 12-month average, must not exceed by more than 1.5 percentage points that of the three best-performing Member States in terms of price stability. To show this inflation rate, the Statistical Office calculates a special EMU convergence price index, the basis of which is the harmonised index of consumer prices;
- Low interest rates: long-term interest rates must not exceed by more than 2 percentage points that of the three best-performing Member States in terms of price stability;
- Exchange rate stability: respect of the normal fluctuation margins (±15%) provided for by the exchange-rate mechanism (ERM II) for at least the last two years without evaluation;
- Sustainability of public finance:
- government deficit must not exceed 3% of GDP, unless the ratio has declined substantially and continuously and reached a level that comes close to the reference value or the excess over the reference value is only exceptional and temporary and the ratio remains close to the reference value;
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- government debt must not exceed 60% of GDP, unless the ratio is sufficiently diminishing and approaching the reference value at a satisfactory pace.
- Compatibility of national legislation, especially regulations referring to national central banks, with Articles 108 and 109 of the Treaty and the Statute of the ESCB.
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