10 years ago, European countries have launched its grand experiment with a shared currency and watched it plunge in value before recovering.
As the anniversary approaches of the January 1st, 1999, arrival of the euro, economists say the new currency is finally fulfilling its promise as a way to lower borrowing costs, ease trade and tourism, boost growth and strengthen the European community.
And doing it amid a global financial crisis that, for the moment, underlines the safety in numbers that comes from joining one, big currency.
"After 10 years it has truly created a zone of security and stability," French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in mid-December. "From all these points of view, the euro has in fact proven wrong the forecasts some made against the euro 10 years ago."
When it was launched for non-cash purposes in 1999, just 11 countries were on board Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Notes and coins were added on January 1, 2002, and the original 11 have been joined by Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Slovenia, with Slovakia slated to join on Jan. 1, bringing the total to 16. Now, some people in longtime holdouts such as Sweden and even strongly euro-skeptic Britain are beginning to reconsider the question. Full celebration here
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