Vujcic was speaking at a panel as part of a conference on the strategy for the adoption of the euro, organised by the government and the HNB.
Speaking of the benefits of euro adoption, Vujcic cited elimination of foreign currency risks for the economy, reduction of the cost of borrowing for domestic sectors, reduction of the risk of an outbreak of currency and banking crises, and lower transaction costs.
The adoption of the EU's common currency by Croatia would boost international trade and investment, allow Croatia to take part in the division of monetary income from the Eurosystem, and enable access to euro-area financial assistance mechanisms.
Croatia is a highly euroised country and in such a framework the degrees of freedom of running monetary policy are substantially narrowed, he said, adding that the adoption of the euro would eliminate the currency risk, reduce interest rates and remove the risks of currency and banking crises.
Vujcic said that the elimination of the currency risk would be the principal benefit for the Croatian economy because of its high exposure to that risk.
"The total gross foreign currency debt of all domestic sectors, including that with a currency clause, exceeds 500 billion kuna, which is approximately a year and a half worth of the Croatian GDP," the central bank governor said, stressing that all economic entities with an unbalanced structure of assets and liabilities were exposed to the currency risk.
He said that one of the advantages was that reduction of borrowing costs for the domestic sector would result in interest rates getting closer to those in the euro area, which would increase the competitiveness of the Croatian economy.
Speaking of the costs of introducing the euro, Vujcic cited the loss of independent monetary and exchange rate policies, saying that the cost would not be considerable because even now the room for the active use of monetary and exchange rate policies was largely restricted.
Vujcic said that the general fear that the switch to the euro would lead to considerable increases in prices was exaggerated. He said that the effect of the conversion of national currencies to the euro on the rise of consumer prices was, as a rule, very mild.
Economy Minister Martina Dalic said that fiscal policy and structural reforms would play a key role in maintaining macroeconomic stability in the period ahead.
"The period after entering the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) will be marked by preparations to adopt the euro as soon as possible. Economic policy will have to be conducted in such a way as to reduce the vulnerabilities of the economy and meet the convergence criteria," Dalic said.
Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said that the first step in the transition to the euro was joining ERM II, in which an EU member state is required to stay at least two years during which the exchange rate of the national currency must not considerably fluctuate in relation to the euro.
He said that in considering an application for accession to the ERM, EU member states and institutions take into account the actual level of convergence achieved.
"Croatia's present per-capita GDP is comparable to the incomes of the new euro-area members at the time of their accession to the Exchange Rate Mechanism, so we can conclude that the convergence achieved is sufficient for joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism," Maric said.