VILNIUS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) for the first time will take monetary policy decisions in Lithuania during its external meeting this June, the Bank of Lithuania announced on Tuesday.
"This is an important meeting as we will be discussing the latest hard data, which will provide insight into the economic situation in the near and medium term," Vitas Vasiliauskas, chairman of the board of the Bank of Lithuania and member of the ECB Governing Council, was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.
The Governing Council, the main decision-making body of the ECB, usually meets twice a month at the ECB's premises in Frankfurt am Main.
Once a year the council holds an external meeting in one of the euro area countries. It is the first time when the ECB's decision-making process will take place in Lithuania, the country's central bank said.
The meeting in Vilnius is expected to host Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, the five other members of the ECB Executive Board, as well as the governors of the national central banks of the 19 eurozone countries.
This will be Draghi's second official visit to Lithuania. The first one was in September 2014, when the country was preparing to adopt the euro.
Lithuania adopted the euro on Jan. 1, 2015.
