Euro

The Euro is a young currency that was adopted as late as 1995. It was launched officially on 1 January 1999, while the Euro banknotes came out in 2002. The euro is the official currency for 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU). The European currency was well trusted from launch until 2009, when Greece and other southern European countries .

euro

Below you can read more in our in-depth guide about the Euro:

Common names for Euro

Simply Euro and ‘The Single Currency’ are two of the most common names found among currency traders for the main currency in Euro Zone.

Countries with Euro

The official countries using Euro is Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Germany and Austria.

Unofficial Euro countries

The unofficial countries with Euro are Andorra, Kosovo, Montenegro and the French colony of Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin.

How much is the Euro traded?

The euro is the currency with the highest combined value of cash in circulation in the world. Already after a few years of circulation, EUR/USD became the most traded currency pair in the world, with the highest volume.

Currency symbol and ISO-code

The ISO code used by both currency traders and foreign exchange providers is EUR, while € is the currency symbol.

Inspiration for this currency symbol came from the Greek letter epsilon (Є) – a reference to the cradle of European civilization – and the first letter of the word Europe, crossed by two parallel lines to ‘certify’ the euro’s stability.

History of the Euro

The euro became the official currency for 300 million people in Europe the 1st of January, 1999. It replaced the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1. But it was not until 2002 that the banknotes were launched in the Euro zone. Many were concerned about the merger, giving the same interest rates to the entire Euro zone, while the ability to self-manage the national fiscal policy was minimized. The first nine years with the Euro went better then most analysts expected in the beginning, while the financial crisis in Greece during 2009-10 have given the single currency a lot of stress.

The following exchange rates prevailed at the transition:

40.3399 of BEF (Belgian francs) per Euro
1.95583 DEM (German Mark) per Euro
0.787564 IEP (Irish pounds) per Euro
340,750 GRD (Greek drachmas) per Euro
166,386 ESP (Spanish peseta) per Euro
6.55957 FRF (French franc) per Euro
1936.27 ITL (Italian lira) per Euro
0.585274 CYP (Cyprus Pound) per Euro
40.3399 LUF (Luxembourg franc) per Euro
0.429300 MTL (Maltese lira) per Euro
2.20371 NLG (Dutch guilders) per Euro
13.7603 ATS (Austrian schilling) per Euro
200,482 PTE (Portuguese escudo) per Euro
239,640 SIT (SIT Slovenia) per Euro
30.1260 SKK (Slovak Koruna) per Euro
5.94573 FIM (Finnish markka) per Euro

Currency Crises with Euro

The Euro fell heavily against the USD, from 1.18 EUR/USD to 0.82 EUR/USD, before the Euro bank notes were officially launched. After the official launch in January 2002, the Euro began to steadily appreciate and was topping at 1.6 EUR/USD in the summer of 2008. However, in late 2009 the Euro started to drop against USD again after concerns over the solvency of Greece.

European Central Bank (ECB)

ECB’s and the European Union’s objectives (Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union) is high employment rate and sustainable non-inflationary growth.

Online Forex Trading with Euro

The euro is part of the most traded currency pair – EUR/USD. Trading currency with the Euro against the U.S. dollar is the most popular currency pair at the moment.

Among the biggest advantage with EUR/USD is the high volume, leading to a competitive spread. Technical analysis works very well and the currency pair is followed by a large crowd of currency analysts.

The euro has proved itself to be a stable currency, over almost 10 years, until the financial crisis begun in Greece (autumn 2009). Apart from EUR/USD, forex traders also frequently trade EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY and EUR/CHF.

The euro’s value against other currencies

The Euro is traded freely under floating exchange rate.

Pictures of Euro notes and coins

Below are some common notes and coins in the euro zone.
euro-notes
Read the latest news about Euro.


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