Czech Republic to set euro target date in November

The prime minister also announced that the Czech Republic would fix its euro adoption target date on November 1 of this year, saying that he had asked the finance minister to submit a euro convergence plan by October. Mr. Topolánek said his faith in the Czech economy had increased as the country had easily complied with the public deficit criterion for euro entry, keeping the gap at 1.2 percent of GDP in 2008, well below the 3.0 percent EU ceiling. The country’s eastern neighbour Slovakia joined the euro zone on January 1st of this year.