Protecting the health of the nation is the absolute priority in these challenging times, however also securing the economy is also high on the list of concerns. As the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, recently stated “The health of our economy is our second priority. We already know now that the coronavirus epidemic will have significant effects on the economy.”

And the Croatian National Bank (CNB) has joined the call for economic matters to be considered. The governor of the CNB, Boris Vujčić, had a calm and measured message for the nation when asked questions about the state of Croatia’s finances by Nova TV.

"We have very high liquidity reserves in both banks and the CNB. We have stabilized the exchange rate and the government bond market. We still have a lot of ammunition, if the crisis continues and we have the reserves to intervene as needed," Vujčić said. The CNB Governor believes that Croatia can endure such a crisis for a long time.

The governor said that the banking system in Croatia is very stable because, due to a decision of the CNB, which has forbid banks to pay themselves profit, therefore the banking system has more than 60 billion Kuna of capital.

"We keep the exchange rate stable, we kept it stable in the war, so we will continue to do so," said the governor. He urged citizens to make more use of online banking and to minimize cash and to visit bank branches as little as possible.

"We will come forward with recommendations next week that everyone has access to banking services with as little risk of spreading the virus," Vujcic announced.

Although he is convinced that Croatia would be in a much better position if it were within the Eurozone.

"Such a crisis shows how smart it was for the CNB to build such reserves of international reserves. If we were in the euro at the moment, we would have half the problems," concluded CNB governor Vujčić.