Thousands of Hungarians to use the euro instead of their old currency from 1 January

From time to time, experts raise the question of introducing the euro in Hungary instead of using the forint. Recently, when HUF reached historic lows against the EUR, USD, or CHF, it seemed that they were right. Now thousands of Hungarians will use the euro instead of their old currency from 1 January. And they are not the only Hungarians, who live on the territory of their ancestors and are already using the EUR. Below you may read the details.

Croatia is to introduce the euro instead of the Croatian kuna from 1 January. The Croatian national currency has been in use since 1994 when the period of transition from the Croatian dinar was introduced in 1991, the year Croatia’s war for independence ended.

Croatia is the 20th country to join the eurozone. Croatia and the council of the eurozone countries signed the relevant agreements in July.

The exchange rate between the HRK and the EUR will be 7.5345, Ecofin stated. Prices have been displayed in HRK and EUR from 5 September until the end-2023. The eurozone extended earlier with Lithuania in 2015. In mid-November, the European Commission stated that Croatia was ready to join the Schengen area, which they join on 1 January, 444.hu wrote.

• Read also: Austria would exclude Hungary from the Schengen area?

On the 2011 census, more than 14,000 Croatian citizens said they were of Hungarian nationality. The historic Hungarian ethnic communities live in Croatia’s northeastern regions, in some old Hungarian villages dating back to the Árpád-era, for example, Vörösmart and Szentlászló. There, the Hungarians will use the euro from next year.

And they are not the only Hungarians living in the territory of their ancestors and using the euro. Austria has been using the euro since its official introduction on 1 January 1999. Tens of thousands of Hungarians are working in Austria, but they are not part of the historic Hungarian community living in the westernmost part of the late Kingdom of Hungary. Those Hungarians are only a couple of thousand near the Hungarian-Austrian border. Based on the latest census, their number does not reach 4,000.

Slovakia introduced the euro on 1 January 2009. There are at least 450,000 Hungarians living currently. Thus, they have been using the euro for more than a decade.

From time to time, experts raise the issue of introducing the euro in Hungary. The Orbán government is against the idea, and some economists keep stressing that Budapest could not fulfil the requirements of replacing the forint with the euro.

Read alsoWeak forint: euroisation to come in Hungary

Source: 444.hu, DNH