HNB buys EUR 306.5 mn from commercial banks

This was the central bank's second foreign exchange intervention this year. In February, the HNB bought EUR 450.3 million from commercial banks, injecting around HRK 3.34 billion into the financial system.

In 2018, the HNB bought a total of EUR 1.8 billion from commercial banks and Governor Boris Vujcic said last December that the central bank would continue with interventions in 2019.

The HNB does it for the sake of exchange rate stability and to prevent the kuna from appreciating too much. The purchase of surplus foreign exchange also increases foreign exchange reserves and makes the country's monetary policy very expansionary.

The kuna/euro mean exchange rate, applicable as of Saturday, is one euro to 7.376200 kuna.

At the end of May, Croatia's gross international reserves totalled a record EUR 18.6 billion, 1.2 billion more than at the end of 2018.

The surplus of kuna liquidity in the domestic financial system has stayed very high, totalling HRK 30.3 billion at the end of May 2019.