September 14 (SeeNews) - Croatia is likely to join the euro area with the exchange rate of 7.53 kuna per euro set by the European Central Bank (ECB) when it accepted the Croatian currency to the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) last year, the country's central bank governor Boris Vujcic said.
This will most likely be the exchange rate at the time of entry, as most countries of the euro area with one exception have so far entered it with the exchange rate at which they were admitted into ERMII, the training grounds for euro adoption, Vujcic said in an interview with public broadcaster HRT on Monday evening.
In line with that, we can assume with a very high probability that for Croatia that would be the fixed rate for the euro adoption, he added.
Croatia hopes to be technically ready to switch to the euro currency as of January 1, 2023. All transactions would be carried out at the same exchange rate, which will offer additional protection to consumers, Vujcic said.
On Friday, the European Commission and euro area member states signed a memorandum of understanding with Croatia regulating the necessary preparations regarding the minting of euro coins. The switchover to euro would be a huge logistics operation as the country has to convert 1.2 billion kuna coins and half-a-billion kuna notes, Vujcic said.
Public support for the euro adoption in Croatia currently stands at 61% and is growing, the central bank governor added.
According to media reports, Vujcic said on Monday that Croatia will start before the end of the year trial minting of coins with Croatian motifs. Earlier, the central bank said that the Croatian checkerboard flag, geographical map of Croatia, Glagolitic script and scientist Nikola Tesla are the motifs proposed to feature on the Croatian euro coins.
(1 euro=7.475 Croatian kuna)