Luxembourg, 29/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - Eurostat and the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday published, for the first time, statistics on long-term interest rates for the ten acceding countries that will join the EU on 1 May.
At present, harmonised long-term interest rates are available for nine of the acceding countries. These interest rates will be used to assess the degree of convergence of these countries, as required under Article 121 of the Treaty establishing the European Community. Simultaneously, a separate interest rate indicator will be published for Estonia. This indicator will be closely monitored and will be replaced as soon as a better indicator becomes available. The interest rates were defined jointly by the ECB, the national central banks of the acceding countries, and Eurostat. The data is presented in the form of monthly series covering the period from February 2003 to February 2004. Monthly updates of these statistics will be posted on the websites of Eurostat and the ECB (http: //http://www.ecb.int ). Under Article 121 of the Treaty, the convergence of long-term interest rates is one of the criteria for assessing the achievement of a high degree of sustainable convergence for Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Under Article 4 of the Protocol on the convergence criteria annexed to the Treaty, interest rates should be measured on the basis of long-term government bonds or comparable securities. The statistical framework for the acceding countries follows the same principles that were applied to the current EU member states in the run-up to Stage 3 of EMU.