Reflections on Croatia's Accession to the Euro Area

Abstract

Accession to the Economic and Monetary Union, although a historical process, is always a current and dynamic one, its challenges being each time complex and distinct due to the different circumstances in which this event occurs. The article's objective is to identify the degree of fulfilment of the nominal economic convergence criteria for Croatia and the potential effects generated by its accession to the Euro Area. Our results show that over the last two years, Croatia has fulfilled three of the five nominal economic convergence criteria, with inflation and public debt being the indicators exceeding the reference values. Based on the analysis, some challenges are identified that can become subjects for future research.

Keywords

• european integration
• nominal economic convergence
• inflation reference value