The head of the European Central Bank commended Slovenia Monday for a smooth changeover to the euro in just two weeks.

Jean-Claude Trichet spoke at a banking conference preceding the celebration later in the day that will gather senior EU officials, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the EU presidency. The event falls on the 15th anniversary of the ex-Yugoslav country's independence.

Slovenia's "successful" changeover to the euro is "clearly a sign of (its) very fast development and determination to make a progress," Trichet said.

The country of 2 million introduced the euro on January 1, becoming the 13th nation to use the single European currency and the only one of the 10 countries that joined the bloc two years ago that satisfied the economic criteria needed to join the euro zone so far.

The Slovene tolar was in use alongside the euro for only 14 days. From Monday, the euro is the only legal currency and a huge banner on the Central Bank building in downtown Ljubljana declares: "Euro our currency."

The European Commission said last week that Slovenes were already making nearly all cash payments in euros. Almost 80 percent of tolars had already been deposited with banks and withdrawn from circulation.

No notable problems were recorded, despite fears of massive price hikes. The commission praised the country's government and banks, but also Slovenes' "positive spirit" toward the euro.

Many in Slovenia see the switch as a final step in becoming part of mainstream Europe.

At an open market in downtown Ljubljana Monday morning, vendors were hurriedly deleting the "STL" Slovene tolar tags, leaving only the euro value.

"I liked the tolar it's part of our history," said one of them, Mateja Molnar, 41. "But we're in Europe, so here's the euro."

One group of people who do seem to be having problems with the new money are street beggars.

While the old tolar coins were of little value and people were glad to get rid of them, they have realized that euro coins there are 240 tolars to the euro have real value, "and they keep those precious little ones for themselves," complained Ales, 38, who begs in front of a store in downtown Ljubljana.

Slovenia swiftly turned to a market economy after gaining independence from former Yugoslavia. It now has a 1.9 percent inflation about the EU average and its 4-percent economic growth exceeds the EU average.

The country also has a Western-style government and takes over the EU's rotating presidency on January 1.

In economic terms, the government said it expected no change with the switch to the euro.

The EU's economics commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, told Slovenia earlier to uphold its commitment to reforms so that it could fully enjoy the benefits of monetary union.

The euro was first adopted in cash form five years ago. It is now valued at about US$1.3 up from 86 to 89 cents in 2002.

(China Daily via agencies January 16, 2007)