No birthday party for the euro

The single currency project is now 20 years old. But is there anything to celebrate? Emily Hohler reports.

929-Draghi-634

Draghi: did just enough to save the euro for now
(Image credit: 2013 AFP)

"The euro is a survivor," says The Economist. The currency, brought into being as an accounting currency on1 January 1999 (and a tangible one three years later) "defied early critics", cheated a "near-death experience" the debt crisis of 2009-2012 and is now "more popular than ever with the public". The euro area has grown to 19 countries and ranks as the world's second-largest economy, based on market exchange rates, second only to the US.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.