January the 28th, 2023 - The Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) has stated that it intends to help those in the trade sector hit with fines by the State Inspectorate for raising their prices with their appeals. The hunt for those taking advantage of the switch to the euro by upping their prices is continuing, with many fines already issued.

As Index writes, every fourth inspection by the State Inspectorate has alarmingly showed unjustified price increases after December the 31st last year, the last day before the Eurozone accession. In some sad cases, the prices of services rose by up to 30 percent, and bakery products rose in price by an average of 15 percent in retail trade. The state doesn't intend to stop hunting down enterprises who have hiked their prices up, while on the other hand, traders feel victimised and intend to take legal steps to contest those fines, according to HRT.

Cases of high fines being issued throughout the trade sector due to unjustified price rounding are being published daily. The state has so far undertaken almost 1,500 inspections, and in about 300 cases price increases have been found, while another 200 are still being analysed - which means that this percentage could very easily (and drastically) increase.

"I believe that we'll meet the goals we've set for ourselves. It's difficult for me to comment on my colleagues from the State Inspectorate, but the percentage of 25 percent is not small. I believe that due to the supervision, a good number of companies decided on their own initiative to return to their previous prices [from December 2022]. I think the State Inspectorate is doing a good job," said Jurica Lovrincevic, an advisor to the Minister of Economy.

The Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK): We'll help traders in preparing appeals

The list of price increases since the New Year is led by various services, which on average have increased in price by almost 30 percent. But some hairdressers, restaurateurs and other enterprises believe that they're being targeted and unfairly punished.

"We started this story in order to engage law firms, and I hereby call on all fellow craft owners who have received misdemeanor orders to contact their associations, to contact our advisory service at the Croatian Chamber of Crafts, and we'll certainly help them in preparing appeals for the misdemeanor courts,'' said Dalibor Kratohvil from the Croatian Chamber of Crafts.

"We believe that all these fines and penalties are unfounded, we believe that this shouldn't have happened because it's always the small companies who suffer in these stories, and those are the last in the chain, micro-enterprises," he added.

Lawyer Doroteja Jurcic also pointed out that there are a number of problems with these misdemeanor orders.

"Every misdemeanor order from any part of Croatia is absolutely the same, it has an identical explanation, which speaks in favour of the fact that these are previously written explanations that aren't actually related to whatever the specific case at hand is at all. I think that there's already a problem. What the State Inspectorate refers to in its reasons are the Consumer Protection Act and the application of aggressive business practices by traders or enterprises," explained Doroteja Jurcic from the Voice of Entrepreneurs (UGP) Association.

"The prescribed fines for craft owners are from 5 to 15 thousand kuna, for legal entities they're slightly higher, for natural persons as owners they are the same - from 5 to 15 thousand kuna. So, a legal entity that has a d.o.o. or j.d.o.o. finds themselves in a situation of receiving two penalties, one as a legal entity, and another as a natural person, the owner," she added.

The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP): There have been no unjustified price increases

Mirko Budimir, vice president of HUP and representative of small retailers, emphasised that there have been no unjustified price increases and that retailers haven't increased their margins. An increase occurs if the retailer has increased their own margins, he pointed out.

"I'd say that there have been no unjustified increase in prices. What we did at the beginning was the conversion from the kuna to the euro. The state inspectorate showed that we did not have any violations, if we have, then these are minimal offenses simply because someone got the conversion wrong. As for raising prices from the position of a small trader, I can say that there was no price raising either, but we have to keep in mind that trade is a process that we can't just say ceases on December the 31st, 2022, and then nothing else ever happens," said Budimir.

"If a trader was purchasing goods sometime on December the 20th, 2022, and their prices went up until December the 31st, that means that they already had a new input. When they receive a new input, then they have to do a new calculation. Traders form their prices so that they have an input price from the manufacturer, that is, the supplier, increased by their own margin and then by VAT. In this entire process which is carried out, it can be seen that the trader didn't increase their margin even though they had an increase in costs," he concluded.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

January the 20th, 2023 - The Croatian State Inspectorate has been on the hunt for those stores and goods and services providers unjustifiably raising their prices and has uncovered some startling price hikes.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, ever since January the 5th, 2023, when the Croatian Government adopted a conclusion on the implementation of the principle of prohibiting unjustified price increases, the Market and Tourist Inspection of the Croatian State Inspectorate has been carrying out increased inspections aimed at determining whether there has been an increase in the prices of goods and services immediately before the introduction of the euro as the country's new official currency.

Inspections are being carried out on the basis of the Law on the State Inspectorate, the Law on the introduction of the euro as the official currency in the Republic of Croatia, the Law on Consumer Protection and as a result of the aforementioned Conclusion of the government.

Until January the 19th, the Croatian State Inspectorate carried out a total of 1,145 inspections. In 25.2% of the performed inspections, excluding inspections in which the facts are still being determined (163 of them), unjustified price increases which took place December the 31st, 2022 were found.

Out of the total number of inspections, the market inspection of the Croatian State Inspectorate carried out 659 inspections (of which there were 282 inspections of service providers, 280 inspections in retail trade and 97 inspections into retail bakery products).

In the supervision of the market inspection, unfair business practices involving unjustified price increases were found in a concerning 87 cases, of which in 53 cases were discovered in service activities, 19 in the activity of retail trade in bakery products and 15 in other forms of retail trade.

The average unjustified increase in service prices stands at 20%, and in some cases the increase has reached a disgusting 126%. For example, the Croatian State Inspectorate found an increase in photography services of 57%, individual hairdressing services by 126%, private parking services by 25%, self-service car wash services by 50%, and that list goes on and on a bit more.

In the retail trade sector, an unjustified increase of 17% was determined on average for controlled products after December the 31st, 2022, for example - chicken and turkey meat, dried meat products, water, juice, eggs, confectionery, dairy products, animal feed, canned vegetables, all shot up considerably.

Likewise, in the retail trade of bakery products, we've been continuing to record an increase in the prices of both bread and other bakery products of up to 15% on average, and exceptionally, for some inspections, an increase of 20 to 30% was found for individual bakery products. Tourism inspectors carried out 486 inspections, of which in 161 inspections (33.1%) they came across an unjustified increase in the prices of catering and hospitality services.

In 72.6% of the completed inspections in which unjustified price increases were found, business entities returned their retail prices to the levels they were at back on December the 31st, 2022 immediately.

Due to the violation of unfair business practices from 149 of the Act on Consumer Protection, fines are being imposed on all business entities that unjustifiably increased their prices after December the 31st, 2022, that is, from January the 1st, 2023 until the day of the completed inspection.

In the completed inspections, 234 fines in the amount of 399,489.09 euros (3,009,950.55 kuna) were issued with their accompanying misdemeanor orders against business entities. Croatian State Inspectorate inspections will continue in the name of consumer protection with each inspection being part of its own respective jurisdiction.

For more, make sure to check out our news section.

January the 6th, 2023 - Euro Croatia is now finally here after a very long wait to introduce the nation's brand new currency - the currency used throughout the majority of the European Union (EU). There have been a few growing pains and concerns being aired as the country sends the kuna to the history books, and now we need to tackle the issue of fraudulent euro banknotes.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, as the now Schengen and Euro Croatia gets used to its new monetary reality, it's time for people and businesses alike to be aware of the new dangers - the circulation of fake euro bankotes. The police have issued multiple warnings that in recent days they have received more reports that fraudsters are using movie props of banknotes in this new Croatian currency instead of original euros for payment.

In this sense, the Brod-Posavina County police have cited several cases in which fraudsters used said fake euro banknotes, on which was written: "Souvenir production", i.e. "This is not legal, it is to be used for motion props" .

To make it easier for people to verify the authenticity of these potentially fake euro banknotes, the Croatian National Bank (CNB) recommends four steps - feel, look, move, check.

People have been instruced to take a second or two to really feel the texture and relief of the banknotes in their hands, to look at it in the light (as would often be done in stores when handing money to the cashier) and checking whether or not they have a watermark and a protective thread on them, as well as a transparent number and a window with a portrait.

To verify their authenticity, people can tilt the euro banknote and check the hologram, the colour-changing number, the shiny strip and the portrait window.

There is also micro writing on euro banknotes that can be checked using a magnifying glas if you really want to go that far with your investigationsd, and additional features can be checked using a UV lamp. The police will likely continue to rehash these warnings as we go forward, and an instruction video on how to check your notes has been published on the Croatian National Bank's website.

For more, check out our dedicated news section.

December the 31st, 2022 - The Croatian kuna is set to enter the history books tomorrow, after being in use since May 1994 in its modern (current) form. As we prepare to bid farewell to the Croatian national currency, let's look back on its history.

Subdivided into those irritating little lipa coins, 100 of them to be exact, the Croatian kuna (coded as HRK) is minted at the Croatian mint and sent out into the country by the Croatian National Bank (CNB). The design of the Croatian kuna banknotes were by Vilko Ziljak and Miroslav Sutej, and the first series of these banknotes were dated on October the 31st, 1993. There was once even a five kuna note, which has been withdrawn since 2007.

Meaning marten (a mink type creature), the kuna's roots go back to the exchanging of marten pelts (furs, skins) back in medieval times as a form of payment for goods and services. Lipa, those small silver and golden coins which end up in everyone's back pockets and left on cafe tables because nobody really knows what to do with them, draw their name from the linden tree. These trees were planted in and around Croatian market places during the early modern period.

A brief look into the deeper history of the kuna reveals the importance of martens and their pelts back during, you guessed it, Roman times, where these pelts were collected as a form of tax. These pelts were sought after and carried a very high value, and the Croatian word, marturina, comes from precisely this. Foreign currencies and means of trade and payment were in use across Croatia for many years, but by the time 1939 rolled around, the Banovina of Croatia planned to introduce its own currency alongside Yugoslavia's dinar. A couple of years later in 1941, under Ustasa rule as the Independent State of Croatia, the Croatian kuna was born, then called the Independent State of Croatia kuna. This was the means of payment in Croatia until 1945, when it was replaced with the dinar.

Fast forward to the turbulent 1990s, Croatia was engulfed in the strife of the breakup of the well and truly failed experiment of Yugoslavia and the Croatian War of Independence broke out (Homeland War/Domovinski rat). Back then, the Croatian dinar, a somewhat short-lived currency was in circulation here, introduced in 1991 and lasting only until the final month of 1994. Then came the Croatian kuna as we know it, tied to the German mark from the very beginning.

Of course, there were those who weren't fans of calling it the Croatian kuna because the name was coined (no pun intended) by the Independent State of Croatia and was in circulation during 1941-1945, a time many people preferred to try and forget. Other names were suggested as a result, including the banica (the wife of the viceroy) and the kruna (crown). The idea that the kuna would echo back to Ustasa rule and as such be a controversial name was dismissed, and the Croatian kuna remained with its rightful title. 

The CNB's policy was keeping the Croatian kuna's fluctuations with the bloc's single currency stable, as the initial expectations for Croatia adopting the euro officially, which was four years after joining the EU in July 2013, didn't come to fruition.

Croatia adopted the Croatian kuna as we know it today in May 1994, and it has remained in circulation ever since. It will continue being permitted as legal tender until mid January, 2023, but it is officially being scrapped tomorrow, on the 1st of January, 2023, making way for the euro as the country's new currency. Croatia fulfilled all of the many requirements for Eurozone entry this year, being given the green light not only for Eurozone accession but also for Schengen entry. No country has ever managed to enter both at the same time, on the very same day.

For some, the loss of the Croatian kuna marks a loss of identity and hard-won monetary independence, and for others, the introduction of the euro means more financial and economic stability, less people who have taken out loans being victims of exchange rate fluctuations, and more protection during crises. Whichever camp you fall into, Croatia abandoning the kuna for the euro is certainly an enormous moment in history for the little country that not only could, but consistently has, in the face of whatever has been thrown at it.

For more, check out our politics section.

December the 30th, 2022 - This week in Croatian politics, we've been dominated by memories of the earthquake which struck the Banovina (Central Croatia) area back at the very end of pandemic-dominated 2020, as well as Croatia's accession to the Eurozone and to Schengen, both of which are set to take place on the 1st of January, 2023.

Two years ago, the devastating Banovina earthquake struck the Sisak-Moslavina area of Central Croatia. How well has the state done in tackling the consequences? Horrifically poorly, according to many...

We're now just past the second anniversary of the awful earthquake, known as the Petrinja earthquake, struck the aforementioned part of the country. Not only is this region criminally overlooked by the powers that be at the best of times, its position on the list of priorities has well and truly shown itself after this natural disaster struck at the very end of an already terrible year (2020).

Not much has altered for those who had life as they knew it crumble in the space of just several minutes back on the 29th of December, 2020. Dissatisfaction reigns strong among the earthquake victims, but also among the participants in the reconstruction process, which Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic himself referred to as being "unbelievably slow". This comment among other things which have been building up over the past two years started speculations about the potential dismissal of the Minister Ivan Paladina, who has claimed that the comment made by the Prime Minister doesn't apply and wasn't in reference to him.

The residents of the houses which are still sitting in ruin, in some cases as if the earthquake happened yesterday, are dissatisfied because most of them are still waiting in containers to return to their should-have-been newly renovated homes, but the completion of the renovation process of these Banovina houses isn't yet in sight. Rather unsurprisingly for anyone who knows even the faintest thing about Croatia's masochistic love of red tape, there are still many bureaucratic windmills turning.

Local authorities in the affected areas are also dissatisfied because the desired structural renovation of the houses and the construction of replacement houses and residential buildings didn't achieve the expected momentum, despite the amendments to the Law on Reconstruction which were put into force back in October 2021, in which great hopes were placed on precisely that.

As touched on above, PM Plenkovic's recent statement that the reconstruction of the entire Banovina area "is going unbelievably slowly" fuelled speculations about the resignation of Minister Paladina, who took up his post in March, after the resignation of former Minister Darko Horvat, who ended up in jail for some time (enter your shocked Pikachu meme here).

However, Paladina claimed that Plenkovic's statement about the "unbelievably slow recovery" wasn't in reference to him at all and was misinterpreted. The statement refers, he clarified, to the fact that the structural renovation of houses and buildings and the construction of replacement houses are not progressing at a sufficiently quick pace, which he has been saying for months on end now.

"Only when we start doing 100 houses a month can we actually be satisfied. I've been saying this for more than three or four months now. The Prime Minister's statement refers to that part of the renovation that must be accelerated," he said.

Croatia's accession to the Eurozone is now just days away. Here's how that journey began five years ago

Croatia is set to become the 20th member state of the Eurozone, send the kuna to the history books and adopt the bloc's single currency as its official currency in just days. This moment has been being prepared for intensively for around a year now, but the real wheels were set in motion half a decade ago.

Back at the end of October 2017, a large conference was held where the Strategy proposal for the introduction of the euro as the official currency in Croatia was presented. This marked the beginning of a broad public debate on the introduction of the euro, when the government's goal was proclaimed that Croatia would take the first step towards the introduction of the euro, entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II), in 2020, when it was due to hold the rotating EU presidency.

The strategy was drawn up by experts from the Croatian National Bank (CNB) and the government, emphasising that the benefits which come from the introduction of the euro are permanent and significant, while the costs are mostly low and one-off. The strategy was finally adopted at the government session on May the 10th, 2018, when the then Economy Minister Martina Dalic, stated that a period of five to seven years would be a realistic period in which the euro could be introduced as the country's currency.

Then, back in early July 2019, Croatia sent a letter of intent to join ERM II, which was signed on behalf of the nation by Finance Minister Zdravko Maric and CNB Governor Boris Vujcic. That letter was accompanied by an Action Plan, with which Croatia committed itself to the implementation of nineteen measures and reforms spanning six areas, including further strengthening the supervision of the banking system by establishing close cooperation between the CNB and the European Central Bank (ECB), strengthening the framework for the implementation of macroprudential policy by introducing explicit mandate for measures aimed at borrowers, strengthening the framework for preventing money laundering, improving the system of collecting, processing and publishing statistical data, improving management in the public sector and reducing the administrative and financial burdens on the economy.

Croatia was deemed to have successfully fulfilled the Action Plan for joining ERM II and the banking union on time and in full, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced at the government session in May 2020.

A couple of months later, in July 2020, entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) took place. On July the 10th, 2020, the ECB and the European Commission announced that Croatia had indeed entered ERM II, and that the CNB had established close cooperation with the ECB. Entry into ERM II followed less than a week after the victory of HDZ and its coalition partners in the then parliamentary elections. ERM II is also called the "waiting room for the euro", and candidate countries must spend at least two years in it, which meant the possibility that Croatia could introduce the euro as early as January the 1st, 2023. At the same time, the emphasis was placed on fulfilling the so-called criteria from Maastricht, that is, criteria of nominal convergence, which includes exchange rate stability, price stability, interest rate stability, along with two important indicators concerning public finances - budget deficit and public debt.

Croatia's entry into ERM II wasn't hindered by the coronavirus pandemic either, although its consequences represented a major challenge for public finances. On November the 11th, 2020, at the session of the National Council for the introduction of the euro, CNB Governor Boris Vujcic presented the National Plan for replacing the Croatian kuna with the euro, a document that described everything that needed to be done, including the activities of stakeholders from both the private and public sectors, in order to create the conditions for Croatia to introduce the euro on the first day of 2023, with consumer protection highlighted as its fundamental principle.

It meant, among other things, that the exchange of the kuna into the euro would be carried out at no cost to individuals, companies or the state, and that it would be done exclusively at a fixed conversion rate. The government adopted the plan on December the 23rd of that year, while on the last day of 2020, it appointed the management committee and the heads and heads of six coordination committees for the implementation of the plan. After a public consultation on the desired national motifs for the Croatian side of the new euro coins, which lasted from July the 1st to the 15th, 2021, the CNB's Money Commission determined the final proposal on July the 21st, and the proposed motifs were a checkerboard, a geographical map of Croatia, the kuna (a pine marten/mink type of animal), the Glagolitic script and of course - Nikola Tesla.

At the beginning of August 2021, the CNB announced a tender for the design of the national side of euro coins, and on February the 4th this year, the most successful designs were presented to the public, for which the authors received generous cash prizes.

Back in mid-January 2022, a proposal for a law on the euro was presented and submitted for public consultation, and the guidelines for adjusting the domestic economy in the process of replacing the Croatian kuna with the euro were also presented. At that time, among other things, it was announced that from September the 5th of this year, it would be mandatory for all business entities to display their sale prices in both kuna and euros, as one of the mechanisms to protect consumers from unjustified price increases. On May the 13th, the Croatian Parliament adopted the Law on the introduction of the euro as the official currency in Croatia. 117 MPs voted for the law, 13 were against it, and one abstained.

Finally, on June the 1st, 2022, the ECB and the Commission announced that Croatia had succeeded in meeting the convergence criteria, that its legislation was fully aligned with the requirements of the EU Treaty and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks/European Central Bank, and that it was ready to become the 20th member of the Eurozone from January the 1st, 2023.

Looking primarily at the Maastricht criteria, the biggest focus was placed on price stability, i.e. inflation, which began to rise across Europe and the rest of the world due to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, and later owing to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Over the last 12 months, Croatia has had an inflation rate of 4.7 percent, which was below the reference value of 4.9 percent. In order to meet this criterion, inflation couldn't have been allowed to spiral higher than 1.5 percent of the reference value, which is based on the average inflation in the three EU member states with the lowest inflation of all. In the past year, these were Finland, France and Greece, while Malta and Portugal were excluded from the calculation, where inflation deviated considerably from the European average due to much more specific reasons.

With the green light having been obtained from the Commission and the ECB, Croatia's path to full Eurozone membership was opened up.

In mid-June, the Eurogroup and the Council of the EU recommended that Croatia introduce the euro from January the 1st, 2023, followed by support for Croatian membership from the European Council and the European Parliament, and finally, on July the 12th, the Council for Economic and Financial Affairs of the EU (Ecofin) adopted three legal acts that were necessary for Croatia to become the latest member of the Eurozone, among other things, the decision on the conversion rate of kuna to euro according to the central parity of 1 euro = 7.53450 kuna.

On July the 5th, it was announced that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Zdravko Maric was resigning from his duties, but he still had the opportunity to attend that Ecofin session, which he apostrophised as a kind of "dot on the i" of his entire (and rather long) mandate. The three leading credit rating agencies - Standard&Poor's, Fitch and Moody's - responded to Ecofin's decision by raising their ratings, which also gave Croatia its highest investment rating in its history, provided by all three agencies.

In the entire process of introducing the euro, 19 sessions of the National Council for the introduction of the euro as the official currency in the Republic of Croatia were held, in which, in addition to representatives of the government and the CNB, the representatives of banks, employers and trade unions also sat. On Wednesday, December the 28th, the last session of the Council before Croatia joins the Eurozone was held, and all key actors, from representatives of the CNB and the government, to the heads of Fina and Croatian Post and the largest banks operating in Croatia, reported that all the necessary preliminary work had successfully been done and that all systems are ready for the transition to the new currency.

Governor Boris Vujcic reported, among other things, that so far 400 million euro coins with Croatian national motifs had been minted, a process that began back in July at the Croatian Mint in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb. The large logistical effort of currency exchange was accompanied by the withdrawal of the current kuna from circulation, which regards about 1.1 billion coins and 500 million banknotes.

The CNB started with the first pre-supply of euro coins and banknotes three months before January the 1st, which included banks, Fina and Croatian Post, while the distribution of packages of euro coins to individuals began on December the 1st. People have so far bought 682 thousand of these packages, individually worth 100 kuna.

Boris Vujcic also reported that all the planned amount of euro banknotes had been acquired, and the supply of business entities, which is carried out by banks, is now nearing its end.

In addition to the legal obligation of double reporting of prices (in kuna and euros), which came into effect on September the 5th, business entities were invited from August the 16th onwards to join the Code of Ethics, the goal of which is to enable a reliable and transparent exchange of the Croatian kuna with the euro. By December the 28th, 1,006 business entities had joined it. In addition, in order to acquaint the general population with all aspects of the introduction of the new currency, the government and the CNB conducted informative and educational campaigns in autumn which spanned all major Croatian cities.

When it comes to the legislative activities related to the introduction of the euro, Finance Minister Marko Primorac reported at a recent session of the Euro Council that 70 national laws were amended to reflect the introduction of the euro, and the harmonisation of Croatian legislation will continue throughout 2023.

Croatia is set to join Schengen on the same day as it introduces the euro as its tender. No country has joined both the Eurozone and the passport-free Schengen zone on the same day before

Along with accession to the Eurozone, which I truly believe I've covered enough now, Croatia is also set to enter Schengen, the border-free, passport-free zone which truly encompasses one of the EU's four primary pillars of function - freedom of movement. The zone is the globe's largest visa-free zone of all, currently encompassing 27 European nations (28 when Croatia joins), which have officially abolished all forms of border controls at their national borders. Named after a town in Luxembourg where the original agreement was signed by Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands back in 1985, Schengen has attracted controversy during various political crises, especially those which involve migrant crises. 

Controversy aside, the Schengen zone allows for the completely free movement of as many as 400 million people, and Croatia joining the zone will aid the tourist sector greatly, as the long lines at the land borders we've come to know each summer will be a thing of the past, and Croatia will also be in charge of protecting the EU's longest external border. It's worth noting that while land borders with other EU countries will be abolished with immediate effect on the 1st of January next year, the new Schengen rules for Croatian airports won't come into force until March.

For more on Croatian politics, make sure to check out our dedicated section and keep an eye out for our Week in Politics articles which are published each Friday.

December the 17th, 2022 - With Croatian Eurozone accession now less than one month away, just how long will Croatian gift cards expressed in kuna, soon to be an invalid currency, remain valid following the introduction of the euro?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, N1 recently looked into a reader's inquiry about the validity of Croatian gift cards expressed in kuna, which will be scrapped as legal tender of January 2023. In several large retail chains operating across the country, the situation with Croatian gift cards whose value is expressed in kuna has been clarified.

People are busy collecting all of the many coins they still have lying around the house, in old trouser and jacket pockets and under sofa cushions, others are trying to locate that old sock with a few balled up notes in it to be deposited into their bank accounts before Croatia switches to the euro. Many forgot about gift cards, and some have been worried about the deadline in which they have to spend the amount expressed in what will soon be the old currency on those Croatian gift cards. Retailers have stated that there is nothing to worry about and that everyone will have plenty of time to spend them.

"The Konzum gift card, for example, will be able to continue to be used after January the 1st, 2023, and the remaining amount on the card will automatically be converted into euros," Konzum stated.

The situation is similar in the case of gift cards issued in kuna by Lidl.

"The deadline for using the amount on Lidl gift cards is three whole years. All Croatian gift cards on which employers have paid out Christmas bonuses to their employees in kuna, as well as kuna gift cards that customers will be able to buy in Lidl until the end of the year, will simply be converted into euros as of January the 1st, 2023, so customers will be able to use them to make legal payments in Lidl stores even after the introduction of the euro as Croatia's official currency," Lidl explained.

For more, check out our dedicated news section.

November the 27th, 2022 - As we head towards the final month in which the kuna will remain the country's official currency, many Croatian exchange offices are counting their final few weeks of business operations. Many will close their doors forever as of January 2023.

As epodravina/Sonja Badalic writes, as of the first day of 2023, the kuna will be sent to the history books with so many of the other pre-euro currencies which were once legal tender in the Eurozone. Euros will then take their place in our wallets, bank acounts, and of course - in our sock drawers. The euro is currency that we've all had dealings with by now, but still to a lesser extent, purchasing them only when going abroad.

Despite the fact that the kuna is tied to the euro in many ways, the withdrawal of the kuna from circulation will bring with it numerous changes for this country. While there is constant talk about whether the introduction of the euro will bring new price increases with it, an increase in wages or perhaps less volatile, more favourable loans, it is rarely mentioned that with the disappearance of the kuna, very many Croatian exchange offices will also close their doors for the very last time. In continental Croatia, more specifically in Koprivnica, we're talking about two Croatian exchange offices whose owners and employees are now in their final month of conducting business.

Nino Juric, the owner of the Marko exchange office in Koprivnica, is closing his doors after 23 years.

''We opened on November the 29th, 1999, and now we'll be putting the key in the lock almost on the anniversary. There are currently three of us employed here. My wife, me and another guy to who we're going to need to say goodbye to. Fortunately, he's already found a new job, but the two of us still don't know what we're going to do. First, we will dismantle the branch office, and then we'll take a short break to think about things. We'll certainly start something new, although we aren't yet at clear terms when it comes to which direction we'll go in,'' says Nino.

''When we started working, there were still German marks and Austrian shillings in circulation. The euro came to be only in 2002, and with its introduction, there were rumours about a possible switch from the kuna, which would have seen us close much sooner, so it's nothing new. We heard about it and we've discussed it for years, there was constant speculation about whether or not it would happen and now, unfortunately for us, the date is known and that day is getting closer and closer. No one is forcing us to close, but it simply doesn't make sense to do business without the kuna, because everyone who comes to us has kuna or euros.

Sometimes, but very rarely, someone asks for dollars, while there's really no demand for other currencies. As a result, our business loses its meaning and we aren't going to just sit here for days on end without work. For the minute, we're calm, we've mentally prepared for the fat that an era of our business journey is coming to an end,'' says Nino, who thinks that it's not exactly the right timing for Eurozone accession due to ongoing inflation and the war in Ukraine causing continued economic issues.

People have been changing more money lately, they've been buying euros, so now there are none left, there's a shortage, we have kuna, but nobody wants that anymore. Croatian exchange offices have always done solid business, they worked non-stop, especially during Christmas, and during the summer months, when Croatian people return home from Germany,'' says Nino, adding that Croats, especially the older generation, are quite distrustful of banks, so they prefer to come to the exchange offices and buy at a higher price.

With Eurozone accession rapidly approaching, the very many Croatian exchange offices dotting the streets throughout the country will become a thing of the past.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

November the 25th, 2022 - The Croatian Modepack company is set to cash in and increase its income on the mere change of the country's currency from the kuna to the euro as of January 2023.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, with an investment of 63 million kuna in their new plant in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, the Croatian Modepack company has recently rounded off its strategic efforts to double its capacity conceived in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, when the demand for their range of courier and security packaging on the global market exploded.

As explained by Jure Siric, director and owner of the Croatian Modepack company, the projections were that the investment, which was supported by the European Union (EU) from its funds in the amount of 7.5 million kuna, would amount to 50 million kuna. However, the drastic increase in the prices of raw materials and goods, as well as rising labour force costs, raised the total investment amount by about 15 percent.

"Given the fact that it's a large space, a building of 5,500 square metres and a plot of land spanning 32,000 square metres, further expansion is also possible. 2/3 of the total investment has already been invested in equipping production. This enabled us to increase our production capacity by approximately 100%, which in practice would mean 300 million pieces produced per year. Further planned investments, such as that intended for solar panels, will make us completely self-sufficient in terms of electricity, which is the only energy we use in the production process," Siric revealed.

Although the foreign market is their main focus, this yea,  suddenly there was a great demand for their products right here in Croatia as well. The reason is the introduction of the euro, that is, the withdrawal of kuna from circulation as the nation's currency.

"We knew that this represented a big opportunity for us, that there would be a lot of work, but what happened in the last weeks was far beyond that. We prepared well and consulted all potential clients. We estimated that we could achieve a turnover of around one million euros on this. Interest was weak until October, when everything exploded and everyone needed our safe packaging for money transfers - banks, Fina, shops, etc. We're very flexible and, thanks to this new facility in Velika Gorica, we've started with the production of this assortment in three shifts. Our current estimates are that our planned turnover on packaging for the collection of kuna and the distribution of euros across Croatia will increase from one million to at least two million euros," explained Siric.

The Croatian Modepack company has otherwise recorded double-digit growth since its very foundation, and that trend has only continued this year, when they expect about 75 million kuna in revenue, which is about 30 percent more than the 53 million kuna they earned last year. Their plans for the next three years are even more ambitious, by 2025, the plan is to achieve 150 million kuna (20 million euros) in revenue.

The opening ceremony of their new plant, where eight production lines will be installed for the time being, was an opportunity for the Croatian Modepack company to present its modernised logo adapted to the global market, from which they generate more than 90 percent of their revenue.

"This seemed like an excellent timing for this move. Modepack always strives to be up to date even now, after six years, and we wanted to modernise everything together. Through this process, we were guided by the backbone of our business: the product - people - production - the planet. The goal we set when creating a new brand was to strengthen our position on the market through clear and consistent communication. Amazon, H&M, Vans, Adidas, DHL, DPD, Loomis, numerous European financial institutions as well as the Antwerp Diamond Exchange (AWDC) are just some of the many users of the company's courier and security packaging.

Although we've only been present on the market for six years, Modepack is already one of the global leaders in the production of high-quality packaging for the logistic transport of goods, with an emphasis placed on e-commerce and courier deliveries, as well as security packaging for money and valuables. We export to 32 world markets,'' Siric explained, adding that Modepack was created based on the assessment that e-commerce would become a reality very soon, and this happened much earlier than expected. This was especially pronounced during the coronavirus pandemic, when e-commerce grew at triple-digit rates.

"I'm not a complete stranger within this industry because I come from the Weltplast family company, which has been involved in packaging and recycling since back in 1983, and since 2010, I've been in charge of sales for the EU market. However, it's a large company that generally deals with packaging and all of the raw materials for it, and my desire was to step into something new and a bit different. I don't think I made a mistake in doing so,'' said Siric, whose company occupies an increasingly large part of the global market, and currently their main focus is Scandinavia and France, where they were present at a large specialised fair this week.

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October the 6th, 2022 - Brand new Croatian euro coins will be made available for both people and business entities to purchase as of the 1st of December, 2022 as official Croatian Eurozone accession is set to occur on the 1st of January, 2023.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, approximately 420 million Croatian euro coins with national motifs weighing as much as 3.7 tonnes are currently being produced, and they will be offered to all people and business entities from December the 1st, 2022.

The one euro coin features the image of a wood marten, which is an animal similar to a ferret or mink and which is the name of the current Croatian currency (the kuna), the two-euro coin is decorated with a geographical map of the Republic of Croatia, the 50, 20, and 10 euro cent coins feature the image of Nikola Tesla, while the 5, 2, and 1 euro cent coins feature the letters H (for Hrvatska/Croatia) and R (for Republika/Republic) written in Glagolitic script, the oldest known Slavic alphabet, according to a report from Danica.

The Croatian National Bank (CNB) explained that all of the necessary quantities of Croatian euro coins with the aforementioned features will be minted by December the 1st this year. They will be sorted into 1.2 million packages for people to purchase and 200,000 packages for business entities to purchase.

Therefore, from the very frist day of December this year, people will be able to purchase a maximum of two packages containing 33 different Croatian euro coins worth 13.28 euros at the Croatian National Bank, as well as from branches of Fina and Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta). Each package will cost 100 kuna.

For more on Croatia's upcoming accession to the Eurozone, make sure to keep up with our dedicated politics section.

September the 14th, 2022 - Croatian banks have sent out some important information to their customers and clients regarding Croatia's rapidly approaching accession to the Eurozone, which is set to take place on the very first day of 2023.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, PBZ sent its clients and customers a notice related to Croatia's upcoming introduction of the euro, in which they specify the essential elements for conversion that will be applied in the conversion of the Croatian kuna to the new single currency of the Eurozone.

"On the day of the introduction of the euro in Croatia, the bank will automatically and without charge carry out the conversion of funds held in Croatian kuna in bank accounts, deposits, loans and other financial statements of value at a fixed conversion rate of one euro = 7.53450 kuna,'' the bank stated.

''The conversion will be carried out by applying the rules for conversion and rounding in accordance with the Law on the Introduction of the Euro as the Official Currency in the Republic of Croatia. In addition to that, according to the principle of continuity of contracts and other legal instruments, the introduction of the euro will not affect the validity of existing contracts on loans, deposits and savings in kuna, etc., meaning that no new contracts need to be concluded. The goal is to carry out the process of introducing the euro and the activities resulting from it in such a way as to ensure the simplest possible treatment for everyone,'' it added.

The period of the obligation to display prices twice (in both Croatian kuna and euros) to consumers began on September the 5th, 2022 and ends twelve months after the introduction of the euro in Croatia.

Of the other Croatian banks which have sent out information on Croatian Eurozone accession to their clients, Zagrebacka banka made similar statements: "On the day of the introduction of the euro as the official currency of Croatia, monetary values ​​expressed in kuna on custodial and brokerage accounts will be converted into euros by applying the rules for conversion and rounding defined by the Law."

Erste Bank also informed its customers about the currency change, according to a report from N1.

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