The European Central Bank has included Croatia's kuna and the Russian rouble in a new daily list of reference exchange rates. The other currencies on the ECB's extended list of euro reference rates, which are normally published at 2.15 p.m. Central European Time each day, are the Chinese yuan, Indonesia's rupiah, Malaysia's ringgit, the Philippine peso and the Thai baht. Publication of the new extended list is to start Friday, the ECB said in a statement. The ECB's original list of daily euro reference rates for 28 currencies was released in September 2000 and includes currencies for nations such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, which joined the European Union (E.U.) in May last year and hope to sign up to the euro in the coming years. It also includes currencies for nations such as Bulgaria and Romania that have ambitions for E.U. membership in the coming years. Croatia also hopes to join the E.U. possibly be the end of the decade despite Brussels putting membership talks on hold following Zagreb's failure to hand over a war crimes suspect to The Hague tribunal.
