New members and the Maastricht criteria

• Pages: 194

Page 194

Four conditions-described in the Maastricht Treaty, which sets out the legal principles for Europe's Economic and Monetary Union-must be met before countries can adopt the euro.

These conditions, which must be assessed at a single point in time, are

* annual average inflation rate that does not exceed that of the three best-performing member states by more than 11/2 percentage points;

* annual average nominal interest rate on the 10-year benchmark government bond that is no more than 2 percentage points above the corresponding average in the same three countries;

* a fiscal deficit below 3 percent of GDP and...