The Bank of Slovenia has published the long-term interest rate statistics for convergence purposes

04/29/2004 / Press release

As of 29 April 2004 the Bank of Slovenia has published the data on long-term interest rates for the first time. The long-term interest rate is used for the convergence assessment purposes. The statistics are available on the website of the Bank of Slovenia (chapter Financial data), they will be updated monthly. According to this data Slovenia fulfil the maastrichts criterion for long-term interest rate.
The European Central Bank and the European Commission (Eurostat) have also published the statistics for all acceding countries of European union.
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 (the Treaty). Simultaneously, a separate interest rate indicator for Estonia is published. This indicator will be closely monitored and will be replaced as soon as a more harmonised long-term interest rate indicator becomes available.

The interest rates have been defined jointly by the European Central Bank, the national central banks of the acceding countries and the European Commission (Eurostat). 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). Protocol on the convergence criteria (Article 4) annexed to the Treaty states that 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 Three of EMU."