Five Motifs for Croatian Side of Euro Coins Put to Public Consultation
ZAGREB, 1 July 2021 - The Croatian coat-of-arms, a geographical map of Croatia, the kuna coin, the Glagolitic script and an image of Dubrovnik are the five selected motifs for the national side of the euro coin put to public consultation on Thursday.
Citizens will be able to rate the five proposed motifs on the website euro.hr and add another, sixth motif of their choice.
Their suggestions will be used by the Croatian National Bank Currency Committee in making the final selection, the National Council for Euro Introduction said after its ninth meeting on Thursday.
The public consultation will last until 15 July.
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Euro Adoption to Have Positive Impact, Particularly on Tourism, Says Ministry
ZAGREB, Nov 11, 2020 - Euro adoption in Croatia will generate a significant and permanent benefit for the economy and the positive effects will be particularly reflected in tourism due to the size of that sector and its high share of tourist demand in EU member states, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports said on Wednesday.
"Visitors from countries where the euro is legal tender generate almost 70% of Croatia's total tourism revenue and about 60% of total bed nights come from the euro area. Introducing the euro will also help boost international cooperation, investment and promotional effects on the tourism sector," the ministry said in response to a query from Hina following a meeting of the National Council for Euro Adoption.
The ministry underscored that Croatia is strongly integrated with the euro area through trade, hence introducing the euro in Croatia will generate significant benefits for the economy.
"It is important to observe and estimate how introducing the euro will affect individual sectors in Croatia, primarily tourism which accounts for a significant share of Croatia's GDP and additionally generates a multiplying effect on other economic activities," the ministry said.
It underlined that "available empiric research mostly indicates positive implications for tourism in introducing the common currency."
Research indicates that introducing the euro has positively impacted foreign investments, hence it can be expected that introducing the euro will encourage investors in Croatia, primarily as there will no longer be any uncertainty related to exchange rates and because of greater transparency in doing business, the ministry concluded.
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Should Croatia Join the Euro? No, says Nobel Winner
August 30, 2020 – Should Croatia join the Euro? No, says Nobel prize-winning economist. And Coronavirus is exactly why.
Should Croatia join the Euro? To be honest, we thought this had already been decided upon. But, new comments made by Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on Saturday 29 August open the question again within the new perspective of the Coronavirus era.
We say new comments, but that's not exactly true. Stiglitz, who won the Nobel prize for economics in 2001, has long been an opponent of the Euro. He is of the opinion that joining the single currency removes a country's ability to respond to crises. While it is true that joining the single currency removes a country's ability to change the exchange rate and deprives it of monetary policy, and thus of changing interest rates, the rub is that Euro countries get more favourable loan deals.
On 10th July 2020, Croatia and Bulgaria joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), a necessary step in joining the Euro. Both must spend at least two years in ERM II before joining the single currency. Croatia will be eligible to adopt the Euro in January 2023. But what will be the situation with Coronavirus and its economic fallout at that time? Should Croatia join the Euro?
The Euro is the currency for only 19 of the 27 countries in the EU. Some EU countries, such as Sweden and formerly the UK, have flatly refused to introduce the Euro despite many years of EU membership, believing that having a national currency is absolutely necessary to manage economic policy.
"I think that every country that retains its flexibility is well advised," said Stiglitz, in an online exchange during this year's Alpbach European Forum. Stiglitz, a former World Bank chief economist and former economic adviser to US President Bill Clinton, is of the opinion that grants available to EU member states should instead be used to deal with times of crises, rather than cheaper loans facilitated by being a member of the single currency.
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HGK: Croatia Meeting Conditions For Entry To Euro Area As Planned
ZAGREB, June 6, 2020 - Findings of the ECB's assessment showing that all the major commercial banks in Croatia have met capital adequacy requirements and passed stress tests means that Croatia is a step closer to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) said on Friday.
Therefore we can expect the country to join the euro area in 2023, as planned, the HGK says in a press release after the Croatian National Bank (HNB) stated that the comprehensive assessment conducted by the European Central Bank showed that the five leading banks in Croatia are well-capitalized and resilient to shocks.
Zagrebacka banka (ZABA), Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ), Erste & Steiermaerkische Bank, OTP banka Hrvatska and Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB), which were covered by the comprehensive assessment conducted by the ECB, do not face any capital shortfalls as they did not fall below the relevant thresholds used in the asset quality review (AQR ) and the stress test, the Croatian central bank reported earlier on Friday.
The findings are also the confirmation of the stability and good quality of the Croatian banking system, the chamber underlines in its comment.
This is also an act of recognition of our members from the banking system and of the whole economy, says the HGK.
The chamber reiterates some of the advantages of the membership of the euro area such as the access to funding through the European Stability Mechanism, the fact that the HNB would no longer have to maintain the stability of the kuna, and the consequent higher credit ratings for the country.
Banks covered by ECB assessment make up four-fifths of total banks' assets in Croatia
The five banks that fared well in the ECB comprehensive assessment make up 79% of the total assets of the banking system, the HGK notes.
Croatia sent its letter of intent to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) to the ECB on 4 July 2019.
The finance ministers of the euro area's 19 member states and Denmark, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and a representative of the Danish central bank's governor discussed the letter at a meeting in Brussels, after which the finance ministers issued on 9 July 2019 a statement in which they "welcome the intention of the Croatian authorities to put in place the necessary elements for a successful entry into ERM II."
The euro area statement said then that the ECB could complete its assessment of Croatia's compliance with the commitments outlined in the letter of intent in about a year's time.
In case of a positive assessment, a decision would be made on Croatia's ERM II participation, a sort of euro waiting area where it should spend at least two years, which means Croatia could introduce the euro in 2023 at the earliest.
Croatia would simultaneously join ERM II and the Banking Union.
Croatia Edges Closer to Eurozone, Official Request Coming Soon?
Just how ready is Croatia to join the Eurozone? The topic is one that has many sides to it and a lot of opposition from both the public and from certain politicians and political parties, yet it seems the Croatian Government is steaming ahead with their plans for the country to enter into the Eurozone and abandon the kuna.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes on the 19th of May, 2019, the Croatian Government has proposed urgent amendments to the ZOKI, which creates a normative framework for the accession process to the banking union, a step that implies officially applying for the country's entry into the ERM II Exchange Rate Mechanism.
However, the Republic of Croatia has not yet submitted the aforementioned type of official request for entry into the ERM II Exchange Rate Mechanism, which is considered to be one of the first steps towards official entry into the controversial Eurozone.
This news could see more steps actively taken to enter into the banking union and establish "close co-operation with the European Central Bank (ECB)", which is usually part and parcel of a request to enter the ERM II.
In addition to the fact that the process of close co-operation with the ECB was the subject of a panel discussion on the first day of the Croatian Money Market conference in Opatija in Kvarner, the Croatian Government issued a proposal for a supplement to the Credit Institutions Act on Wednesday for public consultation, which refers precisely to the creation of a normative framework for the assignment of certain tasks to the European Central Bank.
In practice, this means, in the first instance, Croatia's inclusion in a Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), and that means that in the furure, the ECB will be able to carry out comprehensive assessments of such credit institutions, while for example, Asset Quality Review has so far covered euro-denominated countries.
At the aforementioned Opatija conference, the introductory speech on the path to Croatia's entrance into the Eurozone was given by an envoy to the President of the Republic of Croatia, with the Croatian Minister of State Property, Goran Marić, also having a part to play. It was stated that the single currency is one of the important aspects of unification, ie, in Croatia's accession to the European Union, and that Croatia has an obligation to respond readily and properly to this process.
That means, as was stated, the need to carry out all of the necessary preparations - monetary, political and others, including those aimed at the wider public, with a view to understanding the changes and eliminating fear, propaganda and potential insecurity. The main focus of the presentation of the Governor of the Croatian National Bank (HNB/CNB) Boris Vujčić was the macroeconomic prospects and challenges, and this is usually a reference to structural reforms without which Croatia will lag behind in reaching the level of development of much older EU member states, especially in terms of Croatia's development in comparison to other, older member states of the Union.
Croatia's business climate in us is still not good enough, remotely. To improve the country's overall business environment, the governor emphasised that what is particularly important is the raising of the quality of Croatia's institutions which greatly affects the general level of investment into the country, and that this is a key to faster productivity growth.
Therefore, in the first quarter of 2019, the indicators are solid: strong growth in industrial production, personal consumption and construction, the continued growth of exports (as well as imports) and favourable labour market trends (but with the increasing and very concerning problem of a lacking labour force owing to Croatia's demographic crisis).
In the case of economic slowdown today, however, there is a significant fiscal space that, at least according to Boris Vujčić, should be used in the case of a recession occurring. Otherwise, the Croatian National Bank expects to further reduce surplus on current and capital account balances this year, as well as significant appreciation pressures on the Croatian kuna.
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Click here for the original article by Jadranka Dozan for Poslovni Dnevnik
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