March 22 (SeeNews) - Support for adopting the euro is rising among Croatian citizens, the country's central bank said.
Some 45% of Croatian citizens be2lieve that adopting the euro would be good for their country, up from 41% last year, Croatia's central bank said on Friday, quoting the results of an annual survey carried out by Ipsos agency from February 23 to March 1.
Citizens who favour the introduction of the common currency believe that the shift will make payments and doing business easier. The potential decline in the standard of living and purchasing power are seen as the main risks, with over a third of those polled believing that the adoption of the euro will significantly increase prices in Croatia.
Some 19% of the respondents oppose the adoption of the euro, while 26% are against it conditionally. The remaining 10% were neutral or did not have an answer.
The survey has been conducted every year since 2018 on a random sample of 1,000 citizens.
In December, Croatia's government adopted a plan for replacing the kuna currency by the euro that aims to protect consumer rights once the country joins the eurozone.
Prime minister Andrej Plenkovic said in November that Croatia aims to have everything ready for adopting the euro on January 1, 2023. This includes meeting the Maastricht convergence criteria, and implementing reforms in the area of preventing money laundering, improving the business climate and the management of the public sector and the judiciary.
In July, the European Central Bank accepted Croatia to the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), the mandatory training grounds for the euro adoption. At joining ERM II, the central exchange rate was set at 7.53450 kuna per euro, with a standard fluctuation band of plus or minus 15%.