With 12 weeks to go before the introduction of the euro as Malta’s new currency, a survey conducted among businesses revealed that they are well on track with regard to preparations.

The chairman of the National Euro Changeover Committee, Joseph Zahra, said these results demonstrated the importance of communication in order to ensure a smooth transition. He said it was important to keep the momentum going.

Mr Zahra explained that the survey was conducted in August and September among 1,766 businesses but only 908 of them bothered to reply to the questions they were sent. He said the majority of businesses showed that they are on the right track to being fully prepared for the introduction of the new currency.

The survey was carried out by the euro assistants employed by the NECC and the inputting and sampling of the data was carried out by the National Statistics Office.

Around 98 per cent of respondents said that they knew that the euro will be introduced on 1 January next year. When asked whether the two per cent who replied that they did not know or else gave the wrong date worried the committee, Mr Zahra replied that these people either did not understand the question or did not reply at all.

Just 56 per cent of respondents knew that they could continue receiving Maltese currency until the end of January while 90 per cent knew that the change they tendered had to be in euro.

A worrying figure is that concerning the number of people who knew the conversion rate. Only less than three-quarters of respondents said they knew this rate. 10 per cent of those who replied to the survey questions said they believed that the introduction of the euro will negatively affect their business while 20 per cent said that the new currency will increase their expenses. Just 12 per cent said that the euro is not beneficial for Malta.

Just under one-third of the respondents said that the euro will increase competition for their business. On a more positive note, 55 per cent of respondents said that they will be asking banks for euro cash in advance, before the new currency is introduced.

NECC executive director Alan Camilleri said that on average, the 70 euro assistants have visited shops around four times with a total of 34,000 visits since the beginning of the year. He also mentioned the 11 agreements with various importers with which they fixed the prices of more than 3,500 products.