Matolcsy: Launching euro was 'mistake'

Launching the euro "was a mistake" as almost none of the preconditions for a common currency had been met at the time, Gyorgy Matolcsy, the governor of Hungary's central bank, said in an article published in the Financial Times. Matolcsy noted that "two decades after the euro's launch, most of the necessary pillars of a successful global currency — a common state, a budget covering at least 15-20 per cent of the eurozone's total gross domestic product, a eurozone finance minister and a ministry to go with the post — are still missing." He called the introduction of the common currency "a French snare" designed by former French President Francois Mitterrand "who feared growing German power and believed convincing the country to give up its Deutschemark would be enough to avoid a German Europe". The euro, however, "was un­able to prevent the emergence of another strong German power", Matolcsy said.