Overall inflation has remained broadly stable in Slovenia since the country made a swift changeover to the euro at the beginning of this year, the European Commission said on Friday.

In the first four months of this year prices went up by 1.3 percent against 1.5 percent for the same period of 2006, according to preliminary information recently published by the Statistical Office of Slovenia.

The European Union's statistics bureau Eurostat put the total impact of the changeover on consumer price inflation during and after the changeover period at 0.3 percentage points, which is similar to the experience of 12 other members who introduced euro cash in 2002.

Although the price of some goods and services increased, overall inflation has remained broadly stable, the commission said.

Slovenia, which became the 13th member of the euro zone on Jan.1, 2007, went for a "Big Bang" scenario in changeover to euro, where irrevocable locking of the exchange rate and introduction of the euro banknotes and coins took place simultaneously.

The first batch of eurozone countries except Greece fixed irrevocably the conversion rate of their currency into the euro in1999 and got the euro cash only three years later. Greece had its exchange rate set in 2001 and got only one year to welcome euro coins.

"Slovenia's adoption of the euro was a swift and smooth affair," said European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

As from Jan. 1, Slovenians had a two-week dual circulation period to convert their old currency tolars into euros. A daily observation of the situation in the field for the commission showed that on Jan. 5, only three working days into the change over process, more than half of the respondents to a survey had only euro cash in their wallets and purses. On the same day, more than 70 percent of all cash payments were also already carried out in euro. By mid-January, virtually all cash payments were carried out in the new currency.

The rapid and smooth changeover process was partially owing to Slovenians' familiarity with the euro. Because of their proximity with euro zone members Austria and Italy, more than 90 percent of Slovenians had already seen euro banknotes and coins and most of them had even used the single currency before its introduction.

Following Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta had applied to join the euro zone next year. The European Commission is set to publish reports on May 16, assessing whether the two countries have sufficiently met requirements to adopt the euro.