With the euro as another major currency in the world’s economy — and, in light of the potential attractiveness of euro notes when they are introduced in 2002 to countries in eastern Europe and former Soviet states — we could stand to lose a considerable fraction of the interest-free loan that the rest of the world provides to us.
This will, obviously, not be a major event for us and I would hope it is not the major benefit for the euro countries of the birth of the euro!