Brussels, 10/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a press release on Wednesday, the European Central Bank (ECB) declared that it expected that most cash transactions would be done in Euros by Sunday, 35 days before the end of the transmission period deadline, effectively signifying that the introduction of the single currency is now virtually at a close. This news also confirms what the European Commission indicated the same day: see yesterday's edition of EUROPE, pages 6-7. The introduction of notes and coins should therefore be finished well before the end of the period in which the single and the different national currencies are circulating concurrently, which is due to end at the latest on 27 February in the majority of countries in the Euro-zone but on 9 February in Ireland and 17 February in France.
The ECB also pointed out that more than two billion 5 and 10 Euro notes and two billion 20 Euro notes were put into circulation on Tuesday. The total value of national currency bank notes that are due to be withdrawn, declined by 4.8% on Monday, from 220.7 billion to 210.1 billion. The ECB also published the results of the "Euro progress ratio", calculated by dividing the total value of Euro notes in circulation by the total value of all banks notes (Euro and national), 45.5% on Tuesday as opposed to 33.3% on 1 January. This means that out of all the notes in circulation, 45.5% of all notes on Tuesday were Euros.