COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Euro implications for debt and finance still beyond experts' ken

Although there is no compulsion to use the euro currency during the transition period (up to January 1, 2002), Indian companies must be prepared to invoice or pay in euro as they might encounter customers and creditors in Europe who deal only in the euro, according to experts in the Reserve Bank of India.

The euro will pose challenges to Indian companies possibly requiring fundamental amendments of corporate strategies, they told the ongoing international seminar on ''External Debt Management" in Kovalam, Kerala.

Presenting a paper entitled Implications of Euro for External Financing in India, Shyamala Gopinath, chief general manager, department of external investments of the RBI, and others, said the European Monetary Union could open financing opportunities for Indian corporates that had been largely tapping the markets abroad in US dollars in the form of bonds, syndicated loans and global depository receipts.

Dr Shankar N Acharya, chief economic adviser, Union ministry of finance, said it was too early to speculate on the implications of the euro for external financing in India. "The advent of the euro is a very serious development. But what would happen is very much an open question,'' Acharya, who is in Kovalam to participate in the three-day seminar concluding tomorrow, added.

UNI

Dr Shankar Acharya's views on external debt management

Report on Dr Tarun Das's paper

Business news