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American Morning
Euro Debut Brings Implications
Aired January 01, 2002 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The New Year brings new money across much of Europe. 300 million people in 12 nations are now using euros. The historic currency changeover could have huge political and economic implications.
CNN's Richard Quest joins us now with more from Frankfurt, Germany, home of the European Central Bank. Good morning to you Richard.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: And a very good day to you Martin. Yes, we're at the Frankfurt Railway Station, always a place that is likely to be busy on New Years Day. And it is here of course that the rubber hits the road as you might say in the United States, or in this case the wheels hit the rails. Because of course people are using their Euros for the first time. This is very typical of the sort of situation we are 2seeing.
These are two cash machines in the railway station. This one is not working at the moment. It says "nichtin veitrovich," which basically means, you're not going to get any money out of that one. Because it is probably still giving out German marks. Where this one of course, you can put your ATM card in, and it works quite nicely.
How are people actually managing to cope with the Euro? You'll be pleased to know the trains are running on time. But let's find out how people are coping. Where better than at a good old fashioned frankfurter store.
Hello, good afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.
QUEST: How are you doing with the Euro at the moment?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's fine, it's good. The people come and pay with marks, but we give euros to the people.
QUEST: So they are paying with German marks and you are giving them euros back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.
QUEST: And what problems are you having?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we have no problems, but calculation is a little bit different for us. But, we do it.
QUEST: So the calculations are a bit difficult. This, for example, is the special hot dog, Marty. It costs two euros and 30. What was that in the old money?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's four marks and 15.
QUEST: So it is really two marks to the new euro.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
QUEST: And over there I think we can -- show us the till, let's have a look at the till. There you are, you can see the new euros and the old marks together. So it is going well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
QUEST: Trains running on time, the frankfurters are hot, the euros are being used. What more could you want on New Years Day, Martin.
SAVIDGE: You know, I can't think of another thing, Richard. And thank you very much for pointing that out to us. Order me two franks; will you please? Richard Quest joining us from Frankfurt, Germany where as he put it, the rubber hits the road...
QUEST: I ...
SAVIDGE: Yes, go ahead.
QUEST: We will get it with sauerkraut for you.
SAVIDGE: Wunderbar, thank you very much.
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