History of the euro
Slovakia fulfilled the euro convergence criteria. At 2.2%, Slovakia's twelve-month inflation was well below the 3.2% threshold. However, for March 2008 annual inflation was 3.6%. Fiscal deficit was 2.2% versus the reference value of 3.0%. And finally, the government debt ratio was 29.4% of GDP in 2007, well below the maximum ratio of 60.0%. Public opinion supported the switch, with 58% in favour and 35% opposed, but 65% worried about the inflationary impacts of the adoption. Three months after the adoption of the currency 83 percent of Slovaks consider Slovakia's decision to adopt the euro to have been right.
Slovak euro coins
In 2005, an official public contest for Slovak euro coin designs was held, which took place over two rounds. The deadline for the first round was 31 January 2005, after which the ten top designers chosen by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) were invited to make plaster reliefs of their designs. In the second round, the NBS called a public vote conducted from 12 November until 20 November 2005 on the ten designs that were picked from the over 200 submissions. On 21 November 2005, the results were made public; the most popular design was the coat of arms of Slovakia. On 20 December 2005, the design for the Slovak euro coins was officially made public on the NBS website. Since then Slovakia has been doing economic reforms to be able to adopt the euro.