Since then, monetary policy has been in a waiting position, given increasing signs of fainting price pressures against slowing worldwide economic growth. Ladies and gentlemen, The positive effects of the euro are felt in numerous ways. International financial crises are no longer able to upset intra-European exchange rate relations and trade.
Even ahead of the formal start of monetary union, the 1998 international financial crises did not cause any major disturbances in European exchange markets. Recall that, just a few years earlier in the first half of the 1999’s, major devaluations of some European partner currencies put "hard currency" countries such as Austria in an unfavorable international competitive position.