the euro celebrates its 20th anniversary

On January 1, 2002, the French were saying goodbye to the franc and testified to the arrival of the euro. Each withdrawal was synonymous with euphoria, sometimes fleeting. “The banknotes are ugly. The 50-franc note was much prettier with the Little Prince”, testified at the time a woman who had just withdraw money from an ATM. From the first days, the French learned to live with this new currency, the euro. Some even had a didactic wallet.

Twenty years later, saturday 1^er January, the euro is therefore celebrating its anniversary. The French people keep this little revolution in mind. “We can see that life has nevertheless increased with the changeover to the euro”, reports a retiree. And this impression continues. “We as a consumers’ association tried to inform consumers, to give them observations on prices to show that prices were not soaring”, says Daniel Bideau, president of the association UFC Que Choisir 63. Arguments which have difficulty in convincing the public. According to a poll carried out last month, 80% of French people believe that the euro has amplified inflation and reduced their purchasing power.