site.btaUPDATED Croatian National Bank Governor Shares His Country's Experience in Adopting Euro
At an extraordinary meeting of the Bulgarian National Assembly Committee on European Union Affairs, the Schengen Area and the Euro Area, Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujcic Monday presented his country's experience of adopting the euro.
The euro changeover resulted in 0.2 percentage points rise in inflation, the Governor said, adding that this was half the Croatian National Bank's estimate of 0.4 percentage points.
Vujcic noted that inflation perceptions, fueled by media coverage of individual goods price rises after joining the euro area, are higher than the actual impact on the entire consumer basket that is measured later by statistics.
"Our awareness campaign urged people to exchange their kunas for euros even before we joined the euro area. And we achieved a 60% kuna withdrawal rate before January 1, 2023," the Governor said.
Listing the stages of preparation before the adoption of the euro, he mentioned measures to raise public awareness and protect consumers, harmonizing the legal framework, technical arrangements ensuring that cash registers and POS terminals will be able to handle payments in euros, and preparing the government.
Vujcic said that a new, state-of-the-art vault, large enough to store the withdrawn kunas, was built by the army at a military base and was leased to the Croatian National Bank.
BNB Governor: Bulgaria will pay dearly for delaying eurozone entry
Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev recalled that when in 2018 Bulgaria and Croatia decided to seek integration into the eurozone, Croatia had a lower credit rating than Bulgaria. However, in the process of the euro changeover it was raised by three steps and today it is higher than Bulgaria's rating. This impacts the cost at which countries secure debt to finance their operations.
Radev added that Bulgaria will pay dearly if the adoption of the euro is delayed, especially in terms of financing conditions.
According to the Bulgarian central bank governor, joining the eurozone is "an excellent opportunity - not a guarantee - for achieving three national goals: accelerated modernization of the country, fast economic growth and improved welfare". The guarantee, according to him, should be sought through a sustainable pro-European political construct and good macroeconomic - including fiscal - policy.
Bulgaria is to start a test minting of euro coins in a few weeks, said also Radev.
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