As the euro celebrates its 10th anniversary, Slovakia will join the Euroarea and adopt the single currency on January 1, 2009. Slovakia would be the 16th nation to join the Eurozone. The country had become the member of European Union in 2004.
The exchange rate is set at 30.126 Slovak koruna to the euro. Commercial banks received the banknotes and coins from September and have supplied them to shops and other businesses so that they handle payments and return change in euro from the 1st of January.
Until January 16, 2009, Slovakians can use koruna alongside the euro and they can exchange them for euro thereafter. Slovak koruna banknotes can be exchanged free of charge in all commercial banks until the end of 2009.
According to the calculations of the National Bank of Slovakia, around 188 million euro banknotes and 500 million euro coins are needed to for the changeover.
From January 1, the official interest rates in the Slovak Republic will be the ECB interest rates. Consequently, the interest rate for the overnight sterilization transactions will increase to 2% and that of the overnight refinancing transactions decrease to 3%.
The Slovak Republic satisfied the Maastricht criteria, which relate to the inflation rate as measured by the harmonized index of consumer prices, the interest rates, the ratio of the government deficit to gross domestic product, the level of government debt, as well as the stability of the Slovak koruna to euro exchange rate.
Last nations that joined euro area were Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. Poland would probably adopt euro by 2012, which is likely to be followed by Hungary.
Joaquín Almunia, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs had stated, "The euro has become the symbol of EU identity and is protecting us against the tremendous external shocks that we have had to cope with since the summer of 2007."
The euro was created in 1999 when 11 countries irrevocably locked the bilateral exchange rates of their currencies and equipped themselves with a single monetary and exchange rate policy.
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