BLOOMBERG/ “Estonia seems pretty much a model of the fiscal discipline that the EU now wants to bring to the entire euro area,” believes economist Christian Keller because it will outperform the 16 euro nations on the EU’s fiscal criteria this year. EU President Jose Barroso said Estonia “most likely” will join the euro area soon. It would be the second-smallest euro economy after Cyprus, with gross domestic product of about $23 billion. Estonia’s austerity measures to get its debt down saw the economy contract 14.1% last year. Fitch Ratings predicts that Estonia will join the euro in January, with Lithuania following in 2014. Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania will switch in 2015, and the Czechs will convert in 2016. But about 4,000 Estonians have signed an online petition started last month to oppose swapping the kroon for the euro.
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