Estonia Currency Architect Sees ‘No Rush’ on Euro

Estonia, Lithuania and Bulgaria shouldn’t rush to adopt Europe’s common currency given the euro- region’s turmoil and the limited benefits of the switch, said Steve Hanke, the architect of the nations’ currency regimes.

The three eastern European economies with currency boards would do better to focus on improving competitiveness than joining the euro, said Hanke, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, in a phone interview from Baltimore yesterday.