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Latvia rings in euro for New Year

AFP, Riga
LATVIA woke up to both a New
Year and a new currency Wednesday after the ex-Soviet Baltic state swapped its cherished lats for the euro at midnight, becoming the 18th member of the troubled eurozone. The entry of the country of two million people capped another turbulent year for the eurozone, recovering gradually from a crippling debt crisis and ensuing recession.
But despite the fanfare, with a spectacular firework display illuminating the sky over Riga, many in Latvia bade a reluctant farewell to the lats, seen as a proud symbol of independence from the crumbling Soviet Union.
With fears over possible price hikes and uncertainty about joining a bloc in crisis, polls show that only around a quarter of Latvians are enthusiastic about adopting the euro as their currency.
Half oppose the third currency switch in just over two decades, as they join a club in which five of its members have been forced to seek an international bailout in recent years.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, who has pushed through a bruising set of austerity measures to meet the stringent criteria for joining the bloc, hailed it as a "big opportunity" for Latvia's economy as he withdrew a crisp new 10-euro note after midnight.
Avoiding excessive debt through "responsible" spending was key to any future success, he warned.
"I am against the euro. This isn't a happy day. The lats is ours, the euro isn't - we should have kept the lats," Zaneta Smirnova told AFP as the 40-year-old watched ceremonies marking the euro adoption.
But as business got underway on New Year's Day, pragmatism appeared to outweigh nostalgia and fear.
"Guests are paying their bills in euro with no problem at all...It's a good thing for the hotel industry, even though we liked our lati," Riga hotelier Uldis Sebris told AFP.
"Some people have been buying things they don't really need just so they can use euros for the first time," Irina, a shop assistant at a Riga convenience store told AFP.
"I'm being extra careful with entering the prices. So far, so good," she said.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso praised Latvia's
"impressive efforts" and "unwavering determination”, as he welcomed the newest member of the eurozone - now a bloc of 333 million Europeans.
And European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told AFP that Latvia was "a role model as far as fiscal adjustment is concerned."
Like the crisis-hit eurozone, which expects to limp back to growth some time in 2014, Latvia was hit hard by the 2008-9 world financial crisis.
It endured the world's deepest recession when GDP shrank by nearly a quarter over the two years.
Dombrovskis - who deftly steered Latvia towards the euro - orchestrated a 7.5 billion-euro ($10.3-billion) international bailout to avert bankruptcy, but at the price of deep austerity cuts.
Latvia bounced back to top EU growth charts with two consecutive years of five percent growth in 2011-2012. A four percent expansion is expected for 2013.
And the 18th member of the club joins as the eurozone ends 2013 on a more positive note after years of lurching crises, enduring recession, unemployment and social unrest.
On Tuesday, Spain officially exited its bank bailout programme, a day after Greece's prime minister announced it was ready to return to the markets.
Ireland has also put its bailout programme behind it and EU leaders stitched together an historic banking union deal in December they hope will end the excesses that brought the bloc to its knees.
But the green shoots have not convinced Latvia's vocal “No Euro" campaign: it still casts the European Union as a successor to the USSR.
Both lati and euros will be legal tender for the first 14 days of the new year before the lats is mothballed.
Other countries currently inside the EU but outside the eurozone are biding their time.
Only Denmark and Britain have a formal opt-out from joining the euro.
Sweden rejected it in a 2003 referendum and is unlikely to join soon.
Uthuania has targeted 2015 to pocket the euro while larger economies Poland and the Czech Republic are still several years off meeting the strict membership criteria.
Hungary and more recent recruits to the EU including Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania are even less likely to join the common currency any time soon.