Euro zone sets Latvia's entry rate to club still in crisis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone will embrace Latvia as its newest member from next year, eager to show that the bloc is not disintegrating despite doubts about southern Europe's ability to overcome more than three years of crisis.

Finance ministers from the full 28-nation European Union set Latvia's exchange rate at 0.702804 lats to one euro, an irrevocable conversion that cements the country's shift away from Russia two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union.