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| Words in the News
Wednesday 02 January 2002
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Euro cash launch
Summary: Citizens of twelve European Union countries are getting used to some new banknotes and coins. Euro, the EU's common currency, is now in circulation, but what are the implications? This report from Andrew Walker:
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| | The News | |
| | | The single currency will make it more obvious if prices are different and consumers will be able to choose where to shop.
One important drawback of the cash changeover is the cost, especially to business - changing bank accounts, shop tills and all the vending machines and parking meters.
But many of the economic effects are already with us. The Euro made its debut in the financial markets three years ago and it has been an option for any non-cash transaction ever since.
Another benefit for business is the elimination of currency risk in the Euro area - the possibility that you might lose money in cross border trade because of exchange rate movements. That too came three years ago, when the conversion rates for the national currencies were fixed.
It's also three years since the Euro countries lost the power to set their own independent interest rates, a job that is now done for all of them by the European Central Bank. As expected, it has proved to be difficult for the Bank to get it right for all countries all the time.
Germany in particular could probably do with rather lower interest rates to stimulate an economic recovery.
ANDREW WALKER, BBC, LONDON
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| | The Words
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| | | consumers
people who buy goods or services
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| | | drawback
a disadvantage, or a negative aspect of something
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| | | the cash changeover
the replacement of existing banknotes and coins with new ones, as a result of the introduction of the Euro
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| | | made its debut
here - was introduced
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| | | an option
one of a number of means/ways
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| | | transaction
a piece of business, for example an act of buying or selling something
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| | | cross border trade
buying, selling or exchanging goods or services between countries
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| | | conversion rates
here - exchange rates between the Euro and the national currencies of the countries in the Euro zone
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| | | interest
extra money that you receive if you have invested a sum of money, or extra money that you pay if you have borrowed money
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| | | to stimulate
to encourage something to begin, or to develop further
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