Euro currency remains a work in progress on 20th birthday
Associated PressFRANKFURT, Germany — The euro is about to celebrate its 20th birthday, but the countries that use it are still wrestling with how the shared currency should work and how to fix flaws exposed by the debt crisis that marred its second decade. The euro was launched on Jan. 1, 1999, when 11 countries fixed their exchange rates to it and handed decisions on interest rates to the newly-founded European Central Bank. An expert report carried out for the European Commission as long ago as 1977 estimated that a shared currency would need a central budget of 5 to 7 percent of gross domestic product. Considering the pain Greeks endured to keep the euro, the EU’s single currency remains remarkably popular. Sixty percent say it’s good for the country and 71 percent believe it’s good for the EU — only slightly below average among currency bloc members as a whole, at 64 and 74 percent.
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