Croatia's central bank HNB on Wednesday intervened in the foreign exchange market in order to prop up the kuna exchange rate, spending €171 million to buy kuna from commercial banks, at an average exchange rate of HRK 7.562 to the euro, the HNB said in a brief statement.

This was the central bank’s first foreign exchange intervention since June 2021. Following the intervention, the kuna gained ground against by a marginal 0.0001 percent. The new exchange rate, effective from Thursday, is 7.56 kuna.

For decades, the central bank maintains the exchange rate of the local currency kuna in a narrow band ranging around 7.5 kuna per euro. Although Croatia has been a full member of the European Union since 2013, it has yet to join the euro zone. The current government hopes Croatia might be allowed to join the euro zone in 2023 at the earliest.

The central bank also said that the national financial system is enjoying record-high liquidity of about 80 billion kuna (€10.6 billion).