Fireworks and fear as Latvia joins eurozone

Not long after midnight, Latvia's prime minister will do what many do every day -- withdraw money from a Riga bank machine. But for the first time, euros will shoot out instead of tiny Latvia's beloved lat.
Overhead, fireworks will herald not only the New Year but the Baltic country's formal entry as the 18th member of the eurozone.
But only a quarter of Latvians will go wild with applause, an SKDS poll this month shows, while half the nation cringes with fear and annoyance over Latvia's second currency change in as many decades.
The main concern is rising prices amid already draconian austerity cuts.

"Let's just get it over with. I'm tired of hearing about the euro 24 hours a day," said 24-year-old student Dace Jaunkalna.
The vocal "No Euro" group fears the money will become yet another "master" after seven centuries of foreign domination before Latvia won independence in 1991 from Soviet tyranny -- and the ruble.

Entering the eurozone will "allow others to rule our economy," charged "No Euro" campaigners who say Riga has "lied about the benefits that the eurozone will bring."
Even Latvians glad about the change concede they'll miss their hard-won lat -- adopted in 1993 and pegged to the euro in 2005 a year after Latvia joined the EU.

"Overall it's probably a good thing but I must confess that I'll really miss the lat," designer Agra Apele, in Riga for the holidays from her home in euro-using Finland, told AFP.
Some see it as almost remarkable that Latvia even made it into the eurozone club, given its sharp economic setbacks and a nagging reputation as an easy-access tax haven -- and even a money-laundering hub.
But European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso praised the country's "impressive efforts and the unwavering determination" as he welcomed Latvia into the eurozone.
After embracing the free market with hefty economic growth in the decade after independence, the Baltic Tiger took a beating in the 2008-9 global economic crisis, suffering one of the worst recessions in the EU as its economy shrank by nearly a quarter.