20 Euro Cents

Slovakia joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, making it the first of the post-communist Visegrád Group nations to adopt the euro — a distinction achieved after years of fiscal consolidation that began following the country's separation from Czechoslovakia in 1993. The timing was notable: Slovakia entered the single currency just as the global financial crisis was cresting, a fact that generated considerable domestic debate about whether the koruna's exchange rate had been locked in at an optimal moment.