EXCHANGE RATE POLICY AND INFLATION IN THE PROCESS OF CURRENCY INTEGRATION IN SLOVENIA, SLOVAKIA AND ESTONIA WITH THE EUROZONE

Among the Central-Eastern Europe countries which joined the European Union in 2004 only three – the smallest (Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia) – joined the Eurozone. Within these economies the process of currency integration was diversified in respect to their previously used systems of exchange rate regimes. Also experiences concerning suppressing inflation and meeting the condition of prices stability varied among them. The aim of this article is to answer the question whether the mode of the applied exchange rate regime has an impact on achieving economical convergence with the Eurozone. I shall compare exchange rate regimes in Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia in the period preceding joining the Eurozone. I shall also examine formation of inflation processes within the conditions of various exchange rate regimes existing in the analyzed countries as well as influence of the employed exchange rate regime policy on satisfying the criteria of convergence by those economies.