CBI supports Government's wait and see policy

CBI Urges Government to Join Single Currency....When Time is Right

The CBI has issued a policy statement saying monetary union would best serve Britain's economic and business interests, but adding that the country was unlikely to be ready to join the single currency at the first stage in January 1999.

This view places the employers' organisation in broad agreement with the Government's own approach to EMU.

Niall Fitzgerald

Warning against a "rushed job" on EMU

The chairman of the CBI's Europe committee, Niall Fitzgerald, has warned of the dangers of going into the single currency before economies have converged.

"One of the consequences of going in before the economies are sufficiently convergent is that you will not have a sustainable single currency. So I think in many ways -- by being disciplined and responsible about going in when we believe we are closer to that convergence -- we are probably doing the rest of our partners a great favour."

"Because to be part of something which then wasn't sustainable and wasn't stable, and for it to blow apart three or four years later, would have the most enormously negative implications for the working of Europe and the single market." he added.