'Consultants are over-dramatising its effects'
WHY WORRY about the Euro?
It is a unification of currencies that will make accounting life easier rather than more difficult, according to Peter Krafft, m.d. of Ršhlig & Co - one of the major German multi-national forwarders.
It's certainly better than dealing in eleven different national currencies, he said.
Valuing income fees, costs and disbursements, and forward planning, is much easier with one exchange rate than a host of different national currencies, he added.
After a very smooth change, I would think that 99% of the people in Europe doing international trade are now dealing in Euros, said Krafft. Certainly, all our offices around the world are invoicing European trade in Euros. It makes sense.
Much the same feelings were expressed by Peter Bekx, a European Commission official from the economic and financial affairs division of the Directorate General II. Talking to Business Report recently, he warned of the dangers of listening to consultants who were over-dramatising the effects of the launch of the Euro.
Any suggestions that companies would need to change accounting or information technology systems were needless advice, according to Bekx.
The only change SA companies would encounter initially, he added, was in trade invoicing.
They should be aware of what the Euro is, according to Bekx. The major thing is to talk with banks to see if they can open Euro accounts, offer correspondent bank relationships and derivative instruments, he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry, meantime, has stressed that their telephone lines have not been flooded with anxious calls from local companies looking for advice on how to adapt to the Euro.
Rather the opposite, he said. According to the indications received by the department, local business seems to be dealing with the changeover without any stress.
