Had we not adopted the euro in 2009, we would not have been able to meet the Maastricht criteria for the next 4 to 5 years, as the government deficit increased substantially. You might say we were lucky, but I would rather concur with the great biologist and chemist Louis Pasteur that fortune favours the prepared.
Shortly after our entry, Slovakia and the rest of the euro area were faced with the most severe financial crisis in European history. The measures taken by the Eurosystem were unprecedented and the easing cycle that started in 2008 is only now coming to an end. Outside of Japan, this is probably the longest easing cycle in the history of central banking.