As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the ongoing war in Ukraine is affecting everything, and the operation of Croatian exchange offices hasn’t been immune. Since the Russian invasion began last month, there have been crowds outside of exchange offices across the country, and Croats are buying euros en masse. These queues and crowds, Croatian exchange office employees say, last for days.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, and this currency is being bought just like oil is being bought in stores,” saleswoman Sanja Dadasovic told RTL. Traffic has jumped up to 50 percent in recent days, and it isn’t just euros that are being bought.
“The other day we had ladies who bought some dinars, Czech crowns and Polish zlotys, which is fine for us, but there is a huge demand for euros. We think that people are taking out their reserves,” said Ankica Jurinovic-Ostojic, the owner of one Croatian exchange office in Zagreb.
“There’s a shortage of euros”
“Mostly, we’re talking about 4, 5, 7 or 10 thousand euros, but we have clients who come and buy and coins as well. It used to be that no one wanted to buy coins, but that’s happening now as well,” claimed Jurinovic-Ostojic.
“All the euros we buy now in our branches, we sell immediately at the same time. There’s a shortage of euros. People are probably afraid of inflation and then they invest everything they have in gold,” said Gabor Soregi, president of the Association of Croatian Exchange Offices.
Experts say there is no reason to panic
“Liquidity, capitalisation of the overall Croatian financial system is more than satisfactory, it has been and will continue to be, and as indirect members of the Eurozone, I think there is really no need for such activities,” said Hrvoje Japuncic, a Croatian financial analyst.
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