Croatia Gets Green Light to Adopt Euro in 2023

It’s official – Croatia has been given the green light to adopt the euro as its currency. On 12 July the Council of the European Union formally approved its accession to the euro area on 1 January 2023, determining a Croatian kuna conversion rate of 7.53450 per euro.

The final thumbs-up makes Croatia the first newcomer since Lithuania in 2015. Its accession brings the number of members to 20. This will rise to 21 in January 2024 if Bulgaria gets the go-ahead too. The Croatian population is 4 million, and GDP per capita was €17,000 in 2021, half that of the euro-wide average.

Work had already started to prepare for the transition, based on the National Euro Changeover Plan which was adopted in December 2020.