German Business Switched On Over Emu Change

The seriousness with which German businesses are taking European economic and monetary union (Emu) ""- still years away ""- was underlined on Thursday at a specially arranged meeting.

Although the D-Mark is not due to be replaced by the euro until 2002, businessmen discussed problems they think the switch will cause. These included issues like how to write price labels on goods in the transitional period while national banknotes and coins are being replaced.

About 100 representatives from German trade federations attended the hearing, arranged by the government to help it form an approach to negotiations with the European Commission on the switch to the euro.

Klaus Friedrich, chief economist of Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt, said the bank was on the verge of deciding to invest DM150 million ($101.3 million) in hardware and software to cope with Emu.

Once such decisions were made it was difficult to imagine Emu being abandoned or postponed, he said.

According to an economics ministry official, the main message from the meeting was that there should be no mandatory double pricing in D-Marks and euros during the transitional six months in 2002.

A survey showed that more than three quarters of the 200 companies questioned wanted to price their goods in euros before the official replacement of national currencies at the beginning of 2002.

Just under half favoured voluntary pricing in D-Marks alongside official prices in euros in the first half of 2002. Just under a quarter were in favour of showing prices in euros only.

Retail trade representatives, feared problems in providing bar codes with double pricing, and claimed that only a quarter of German cash registers could be adapted to show prices in both euros and D-Marks.