This is particularly true of the 11 European countries which have merged their national currencies into a single currency, the euro, and which have been conducting a common monetary policy since 1999. However, these changes also apply to market participants in other countries which maintain economic and financial relations with the countries participating in EMU.
They, too, no longer have to deal with different EMU currencies but only with a single one. Thus, non-participating states have increasingly perceived the EMU countries as a single area. Let me start by saying that the euro area represents a relatively large economy.