The British economy is already performing as if it were close to the core of the eurozone, a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said today.
One of the report's authors, Mr Vincent Koen, said the "the UK is closer to the core of the eurozone than some existing eurozone countries, which do not seem to be suffering unduly from their membership of the eurozone".
He also said: "The contrast between growth in the UK and in Euroland is sometimes overdone. If you look at the latest national accounts data . . . you will see that growth in the UK and France was exactly the same, at 0.5 per cent in the third quarter.
"If you step back a bit you will see that cumulatively, since the launch of the euro, growth has been marginally stronger in Euroland than in the UK.
"Going forward, we see growth slightly weaker in Euroland than in the UK in 2002, but the difference is minimal in light of typical forecasting errors," he said.
Overt reference to membership of the euro zone was reduced diplomatically to five lines repeating the official position of the British government. It has laid down five loose economic criteria for judging whether the euro would be beneficial.
However, the overall tenor of the report suggested strongly that Britain is already performing in many ways as a euro economy.
The report also declared that data on the pound-dollar rate "suggest that the pound is under valued vis-a-vis the dollar, although in absolute terms the degree of misalignment is less than vis-a-vis the euro".
AFP