Estonia to join euro zone in 2011

Updated: 18:27, Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Estonia is to join the euro, making it the seventeenth member state of the single currency area.

1 of 1Estonia - First Baltic state to join euro
Estonia - First Baltic state to join euro

EU finance ministers gave the final formal approval to Estonian membership at the ECOFIN council today.

Estonia, which has a population of 1.3m, will adopt the euro as its national currency on 1 January next.

It is the first Baltic state and the first former Soviet republic to join the euro.

Estonia has long had its kroon currency fixed against the euro in a currency board at 15.6466 kroon to €1.

Finance ministers have agreed to keep that exchange rate as the final conversion rate.

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