It was a gamble that paid dividends. Lawrence Gonzi’s decision to have the ambitious euro changeover set for January 1, 2008 had been strongly discouraged by some Cabinet ministers, MaltaToday has learnt.
Ironically, in his regular article written in The Times last Wednesday by Alfred Sant, probably penned prior to his medical operation at Mater Dei, the Opposition leader continued to question the timing for the introduction of the euro.
However, Gonzi chose to ignore his ministers’ doomsday talk to instead get on with the introduction of the euro.
Today Malta is one of 13 European nations to have the euro as their national currency.
And apart from the glitch that saw the Prime Minister himself being refused euros from an ATM on the night of the changeover in full glare of the press, the euro changeover has been unusually smooth.
Most shops were trading in euros, and many seem to have taken the change in currency – the second in four decades – in their stride. Customers were seen patiently queuing outside banks to convert their Maltese liras to euros, but many ATMs were easily accessible for the dispensing of euros.
Shopkeepers armed with calculators and charts were keeping their clients informed of the precise change in the two currencies and ensuring that the conversion of euro to lira and vice-versa was correct.
Yesterday, the National Euro Changeover Committee reported that in the last 100 hours, banks had dispensed over €83 million while 73% of Maltese were paying in euros only. The NECC said Malta was the country with the second most effective and easy changeover.
From the start of the year, the NECC reported over 135,000 ATM transactions in which €15.5 million were withdrawn, while banks carried out 108,000 transactions from where €68.1 million were exchanged.