INTRODUCTION The Euro was introduced as a trading currency in 1 January 1999, with 11 of the initial 15 members of the EMU initially adopting the Euro as its currency, with this increasing to 12 when Greece agreed to join the other 11 members on 1 January 2001. Europe's single 11-nation basket currency, which began trading in January 1999 with a value of about $1.17 to the USD, fell steadily during the first half of the year but was able to establish a footing, albeit …showed first 75 words of 3427 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3427 total…the stronger economies (UK) will be averaged out against the weaker economies and therefore changing from the Pound to Euro will effectively weaken the pound and result in a weaker trading position of the UK with countries outside the EMU particularly the USD which is still the most common trading currency world wide. Monday, October 8, 2001 1 British Pound = 1.61525 Euro 1 Euro (EUR) = 0.61910 British Pound (GBP) 1 US Dollar = 1.08885 Euro 1 Euro (EUR) = 0.91840 US Dollar (USD) (Reference: Silkscreen Consulting 8, October 2001)