Lithuania joins the Eurozone

Lithuania has officially become the 19th European country to join the Eurozone, with government officials that this move will boost investment and deepen the former Soviet country’s integration with the West.

"Given the current geopolitical situation, now it is more relevant than ever," central bank governor Vitas Vasiliauskas said.

Analysts say that Lithuania's economic growth is "steady” at an estimated 3.1% for 2015. However, there is concern about the impact of Russia's recent economic free-fall.

Russia is an important trade partner of Lithuania, but Russian-EU relations have soured since sanctions were placed on the giant country for its involvement in Ukraine last year. Russia's ban on several Western food imports harmed the Lithuanian economy but it was cancelled out, at least temporarily, by a rise in exports of other Lithuanian goods.

Some small businesses are worried that they could experience a cash shortage during the changeover from the litas to the euro, but the Business Employers’ Confederation has claimed that such problems will only be temporary.

Nerijus Maciulis, chief economist of Sweden's AB Swedbank in Lithuania, said that all three Baltic states recovered smoothly from the 2008 financial crisis and that their paths to the euro were similar, standing out as fast-growing economies.

"In Lithuania we joke that we let Latvia and Estonia into the eurozone to see if everything was fine and then we followed,” Maciulis said.

The euro will become Lithuania’s fourth currency in 25 years- after the Soviet rouble, the talonas, and the litas.