CITIZENS of Slovakia have a high level of trust in the single European currency. The country ranked third among eurozone countries in a comparison of peoples’ trust in the currency that Slovakia adopted on January 1, 2009.
“The euro caught on quickly,” Andrea Elscheková-Matisová, the head of the European Commission Representation in Slovakia said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. The EC Representation, the Institute of Public Affairs (IVO) and the Focus agency carried out an opinion poll among 1,036 respondents to determine how Slovaks feel about the euro.
“The year of the euro currency can be assessed positively not only by politicians but also by the broad public,” said Olga Gyarfášová from IVO, as reported by SITA.
Three-quarters of Slovaks perceive the currency switch positively. Slovenia, which adopted the euro a year before Slovakia, reported a similarly high proportion of support but Slovaks appear to be even more satisfied. Younger people had less trouble with the new currency and assessed its arrival more positively.
As consumers, however, Slovaks negatively evaluated price developments after adoption of the euro. Of those surveyed, 57 percent said that prices moved higher, 35 percent were convinced that prices had not changed and 4 percent said they thought prices had dropped since the beginning of the year.
