Croatia may adopt euro in five to seven years: minister

ZAGREB, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Croatian government adopted a strategy to introduce euro on Thursday, as the Economy Minister Martina Dalic said that the introduction of the European Union (EU) currency could take five to seven years.

Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Dalic predicted that Croatia could introduce the euro in five to seven years from now. The establishment of the National Council for the introduction of euro will be planned soon, and Croatia should enter the whole process with stable exchange rate of the Croatian kuna, low inflation, and good results in fiscal consolidation.

"Croatia is economically a very good candidate for introducing the euro as a national currency, and about 80 percent of savings deposits in Croatia are indexed to the euro," said Dalic during the government session.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic believed that Croatia would have significant and lasting benefits from euro introduction. He said at the session that there was still a criterion for reducing public debt, and that the debt share fell to 78 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) last year. It is planned to fall to 65 percent by 2020.

Plenkovic later told Xinhua that the date of introduction of the euro was not defined, but his wish is to do it as soon as possible. "We know exactly which steps we have to take," the prime minister said.

Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and has been striving to fulfill criteria for accession to eurozone and the Schengen Area. The southeastern European country expects financial stability to be achieved by introducing the euro. It is estimated that the euro introduction will be reflected in faster growth and employment growth, as well as in attracting foreign investors. Enditem