European firms fail to prepare for EMU
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Most of Europe's top companies have failed to do any detailed work on preparing for monetary union, according to a survey by KPMG Management Consulting.
Despite this, the finance directors of 301 large companies overwhelmingly expected their home countries would join the single currency. Europe-wide, the figure was 93 per cent and in the UK it was 77 per cent.
Furthermore, 56 per cent of all finance directors questioned expected their countries to join in 1999, a figure which shrank to 39 per cent in the UK.
KPMG said 80 per cent of companies had not estimated the costs of adapting to EMU and only 8 per cent had set aside a budget to deal with it. In this response, the UK is broadly in line with the European average.
Alan Reid, European head of the consultants, said: "The 80 per cent of companies that have failed to undertake such a fundamental estimate have very little time to prepare."
The consultants accused European companies of only considering short- term issues and ignoring the long-term consequences of monetary union.
Vicky Pryce, chief economist, said: "It is astonishing that such a large number of respondents had overlooked the effects of EMU on international marketing strategies.
"It will have a number of serious implications for this area, the most immediate of which is that greater price transparency will make it difficult for goods to be sold at different prices in different countries."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments