Croatia may adopt the euro on January 1, 2023, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Wednesday announced† In order to adopt the euro, EU countries must comply with a list of financial and legal requirements set by the ECB, and this is now the case with Croatia. If the other EU countries agree with the assessment, Croatia will become the twentieth country in the eurozone.
The requirements include government debt, interest rates and the stability of the economy. For example, inflation should be below 4.9 percent on average for a while. Croatia’s government debt was above the 60 percent standard last year, but because this is partly due to the corona crisis and because the debt is falling, the ECB is allowing this.
Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, has been wanting to switch to the euro for some time. “The euro will strengthen the Croatian economy and bring significant benefits to Croatian citizens,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in a statement on Wednesday. Twitter†
After the approval of the assessment, eurozone finance ministers will be able to set the rate at which Croatia can exchange its kunas for euros, Reuters news agency reported. At the moment one kuna is equal to about 13 euro cents.
All EU countries are obliged to adopt the euro, except Denmark, which has negotiated an exception. The ECB examines whether they meet the relevant standards every two years. The countries are generally making little progress this time due to ‘challenging economic conditions’, the ECB writes. The other six EU countries that are not yet members of the eurozone are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.
founderleyen Ursula von der Leyen Congratulations, Croatia! ?? Today, Croatia has made a significant step towards joining the euro, our common currency. the @EU_Commission agrees that Croatia is ready to adopt the euro on 1 January 2023. We will continue our close cooperation, dear @AndrejPlenkovi† June 1, 2022 @ 3:02 PM