Slovakia’s Euro Adoption Anchored Economy Through Crises, Says Central Bank Economist

Michal Horvath, chief economist at the Slovak National Bank and executive director responsible for the institution’s monetary policy, emphasized that the adoption of the euro has acted as a stabilizing anchor through several major crises. Speaking in an interview with BNR, he noted that Slovakia joined the euro in 2009, still reeling from the fallout of the Lehman Brothers collapse, and years before then-ECB Governor Mario Draghi’s famous pledge to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the single currency, which reassured financial markets.

Horvath argued that entering the eurozone at such a challenging period helped Slovakia avoid the instability that might have occurred had it retained a small national currency....