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Tallinn - Estonia switched smoothly to the euro on Saturday, brushing off worries about a crisis in the currency club which is likely to put off bigger eastern European nations from joining for up to a decade.
The Baltic state of 1.3 million became the 17th euro zone country at midnight on December 31 and was the first former Soviet state to adopt the euro, capping 20 years of integration with the West.
Estonia sees the change as marking the end of its struggles since a 2009 recession lopped 14% off its output. It hopes to entice investors by removing fears of devaluation and make borrowing more secure for its people, many of whose mortgages are already in euros from top Nordic banks.
"It is a small step for the euro zone and a big step for Estonia," said Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who was the first to take euros out of a specially installed cash machine.
"We are proud to be a euro zone member state."
The central bank, whose governor will now help decide euro zone interest rates, said the changeover was smooth.
"The money reached ATMs and retail stores in time at the end of the year," said deputy central bank head Rein Minka.
Estonia will be the currency club's poorest member but its debt and deficit levels - the cause of the crisis for some euro zone members - are among the lowest in the bloc.
In economic terms, the single currency bloc will barely notice the addition - Estonia's GDP is 0.2% of the euro zone's €8.9 trillion.
