The Fiscal Council reports a minor effect on prices since the admission of the euro in Croatia
The impact of the admission of the euro in the newest country – a member of the Currency Union, Croatia is rated as « minimal » on consumer prices. The change of currency from the EURO Kuna to the Euro 2023 has had a minor, even mild deflationary impact on consumer prices, according to an analysis of the fiscal council of Bulgaria, prepared on the basis of issues and concerns about the euro area.
The Fiscal Council reports that even before its accession to the euro area, Croatia was confronted with high inflation, whose peak was 13% annually in November 2022. The main reasons for it are global – the sharp rise in energy and serious interruptions in supply chains at the moment. The annual inflation began to decrease steadily since the introduction of the euro – 12.5% in January 2023, 11.7% in February to 5.4% in December 2023 and 4.3% in March 2025.
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Eurostat evaluation for the period January – March 2023 shows that the contribution of the euro to inflation was between 0.04 and 0.20 percentage points per month – minimum and temporary increase.
| Global economic conditions are a major factor in price fluctuations, not currency change, according to experts from the fiscal council. |
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However, users signal the rise in prices of goods and services of daily use, and the steps for price control that the authorities have taken proved to be contradictory and relatively ineffective.
| These actions of the Croatian authorities may be a lesson that should not be applied by the Bulgarian government in the event of initial changes, experts added. |
A similar picture
Similar processes are also observed in other Eastern European countries, which have passed to the euro after joining the European Union. The analysis shows that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, which enter the euro area in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2009 respectively, also experience a short and moderate increase in inflation in the first months after the currency change.
| In most cases, these effects concentrate in the services sector – mostly restaurants, cafes and personal care. |
Eurostat data and the European Central Bank show an increase in inflation by about 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points in the countries. However, the level of inflation is rapidly stabilized within the first few months after the adoption of the euro. In the long run, inflation in these countries is not significantly different from the euro area average.
| The Fiscal Council adds that the experience of these four countries as a whole shows that the effects of joining the euro area on inflation are temporary, especially when the process is accompanied by effective measures for pricing and market supervision. |
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