Price rises and foreign businesses winning new customers in Ireland will be the hallmarks of the new European single currency, if a new survey from Amarach Consulting, formerly the Henley Centre, is to be believed.

In the longer-term, the survey also predicts that the young generation of technologically-literate people will lead the cross-border shopping revolution by combining the use of the Internet with the advantages of the new currency.

In its report Euronomics: The Competitive Impact of the Euro the forecasting institute has found that, despite the efforts of the Government's National Changeover Board, many Irish consumers still feel ill-informed about the single currency.

As well as lacking information, nearly half expect prices in the shops to rise upon the advent of the euro. Almost one in five expects prices to increase significantly and as few as one in 20 expects prices to fall.

Mr Gerard O'Neill, managing director of Amarach, said consumers believe that prices will rise following their experience of decimalisation along with having a sense that inflation will drive prices up anyway. They also harbour a fear that the euro will drive Irish prices up to higher continental EU levels.

Customer loyalty may become a thing of the past, according to Mr Bart Fell who also worked on the report. In common with businesses, consumers are willing to switch in large numbers to cheaper suppliers from other members of the euro zone.

The markets most affected will be travel, books, records and cars.

In contrast, far fewer people say they would be willing to switch financial services provider even for a 10 per cent saving although up to a quarter of all adults would be willing to buy mortgages, loans and insurances from other EU countries.

The euro has the potential to usher in an era of cross-border shopping. Almost 46 per cent of men would be prepared to buy a car abroad, but only 34 per cent of women would go abroad for a car. Among the higher ABC 1 social class almost half would be prepared to go abroad to purchase a vehicle.

Men are also more likely to look elsewhere for life assurance at 64 per cent compared with 36 per cent for women.

Men are again the buyers for TV and audio equipment and in the top AB social class, 52 per cent of men between 15 and 50 would shop abroad. Almost half of them feel very well informed about the euro and its likely consequences.

Single males are the most likely to look abroad for mortgage or pension policies. Those who would buy book tapes and CDs abroad are strongly in the younger age brackets and more than half have a credit card.

Overall, it will also be the so-called "Generation N" those comfortable with using the Internet who will lead the charge. Not only do these 15- to 24-year-olds feel better informed about the euro, but they are also more optimistic about making savings and are much more likely to use the tools of electronic commerce. According to Mr O'Neill, this generation will lead the euro-revolution in consumer markets.

Almost one in four of this generation uses the Internet, compared with a national average of 11 per cent although this latter figure has quadrupled since 1995. An additional 30 per cent say they will become users of the Internet over the next few years. Mr O'Neill said there are likely to be one million adults online in Ireland by 2005.

Consumers using the Internet are far more likely to look elsewhere for products and services, illustrating how the combination of the new currency and technology can drive the growth of cross-border shopping. More than 60 per cent of Internet users would buy a new car from abroad, compared with 37 per cent of non-users. Some 42 per cent of users would switch phone services compared with 25 per cent of non-users.

The difference is narrower for mortgages with 38 per cent willing to switch to another country compared with 24 per cent among non-Internet users.

But Mr O'Neill also insisted that movement will not all be in favour of suppliers in other countries.

"Opportunities will exist for Irish entrepreneurs to use the euro and the Internet to reach out to almost 300 million euro-consumers, all of whom will be experiencing the same changes and challenges as their Irish counterparts."

Overall, only 3 per cent of those surveyed felt they were very well informed about the euro. They are overwhelmingly in the 35 to 49 age bracket and 56 per cent are in the ABC1 social class.

The well-informed account for 22 per cent. Over 30 per cent are in the younger 15 to 24 age group with a much stronger representation from rural areas. The not well-informed amount to 42 per cent of the population with more men than women professing to be in this category. The proportion in the ABC1 class drops to 30 per cent, while the working class and unemployed comes in at 31 per cent.

Surprisingly 30 per cent, representative of 837,000 people profess to be not at all informed. Among these almost half live outside major urban areas.

The survey also found that the preferred source of information for most is

RTE with The Irish Times second. Banks and Government sources are both cited by under 20 per cent of people.

The survey was conducted among 700 adults by Irish Marketing Surveys in June 1998 and among 200 of the top 2000 businesses.

Euronomics: The Competitive Impact of the Euro is available from Amarach Consulting, 28 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2. Tel. 661 9147.