Financial sector regulation, oriented towards the changing market conditions, crisis prevention and management, an efficiently functioning banking union and structural transformation are essential preconditions for the strengthening of both Lithuania's and the whole European Union's economy and for fostering convergence, i.e. the economic convergence of the member states, claims Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania.

Lithuanian Minister of Finance Rimantas Sadzius was sceptical about the Order and Justice Party's proposal to sign an agreement on equal minimum income in the European Union countries.

According to the data of the Ministry of Finance, in January-March 2014, the state and municipal budgets received LTL 5.363 billion (EUR 1.553 billion) in revenue. This is by 0.9% or LTL 48 million (EUR 13.9 million) more than expected and 10% more year-on-year.

Vilniaus Baldai, one of the largest Lithuanian furniture manufacturing companies, during a period 2014 January – March operated with a turnover in amount of 52,914 thousand litas (15,325 thousand euros).

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania approved the 2015 issue Lithuanian euro coin samples, which will the basis for the Lithuanian circulation euro coins, the Bank of Lithuania said in a statement.

Invalda LT, one of the major Lithuanian investment companies, requests to suspend trading of the company's shares on NASDAQ OMX Vilnius Stock Exchange from 23 April 2014 due to the ongoing process of split-off of the Company, the company announced in a press release.

PZU SA has today reached an agreement, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals, to purchase Lietuvos Draudimas AB in Lithuania, AAS Balta in Latvia, the business of the Estonian branch of Codan Forsikring A/S and Link4 Towarzystwo Ubezpieczen S.A. in Poland. The total aggregate consideration amounts to approx. EUR360m. The acquisitions are a key step in fulfilling PZU's strategy of international expansion.

"The German Bundestag will vote in favour of Lithuania's entry to the euro area in 2015. It is an ordinary procedure in the German Parliament, but our country greatly supports Lithuania's euro area membership," said Manuel Sarrazin, Spokesman of the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union of the German Bundestag at the meeting in Seimas held today.

Wix, a global leader among website development platforms, has opened a new office in Vilnius. The plan is for the office to employ over 150 information technology (IT) specialists.

Lithuanian Government will continue to carry out responsible fiscal policy. On Wednesday the Cabinet of Ministers has approved convergence programme for 2014 by which Lithuania commits to maintain sustainable compliance with the Maastricht criteria in 2014-2017, and to be prepared for the euro adoption in early 2015.