| Headline: Banks don’t see eye to eye on euro Source: Euromoney Date: March 2002 Author: Tessa Oakley
Yet still the UK government is reluctant to say what it really thinks. Prime minister Tony Blair is pro EMU. In contrast, chancellor Gordon Brown is cautious. The UK will not join, he says, until his five economic tests are passed. To the public these tests are irrelevant. What is important, is the government endorsement that will go with them. The treasury says it is concerned only with the economic issues but public opinion is crucial. Banks have cottoned on to this and have begun to survey the public for themselves but they are using the results to support differing forecasts. Barclays Capital, for example, is neutral on euro entry. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||