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Lithuania not ruling out aid as last resort: new finmin

Latvia has estimated that it will need about 5 billion euros from the IMF and EU to help it out of a crisis, though no concrete sum has yet been negotiatied with the lenders.

‘I do not exclude the possibility that Lithuania will have to address the international institutions (for assistance),’ said Algirdas Semeta, who is to be finance minister in the next Lithuanian government.

‘However, this should be the last step, and, I hope, it can be avoided,’ he added.

Semeta was more downbeat than the outgoing finance minister, Rimantas Sadzius, whose centre-left Social Democrat Party lost elections in October. He told reporters in Brussels he did not see a need for IMF or EU help as the country was still able to borrow on the markets.

Semeta said he would meet with an IMF delegation this week and would discuss a proposed government crisis management plan, which includes spending cuts and tax raises.

He said the incoming centre-right government would try to minimise public sector deficit next year to around 1 percent of GDP from a planned 2.3 percent deficit in the current draft budget, drawn up by the former government.

Semeta was speaking to journalists after seeing President Valdas Adamkus, who still has to approve his nomination.

The incoming finance minister told Reuters on the sidelines of the news conference that the new government would seek euro adoption, but declined to speculate about possible dates.

Analysts have said the Baltic state may meet the Maastricht criteria for adopting euro in 2011, which would allow joining the euro zone in 2012 at earliest.

Semeta served as a finance minister in a conservative government in 1997-1999, and has headed the state statistics department since 2002.