Twenty years of the euro — Key dates

TWO decades ago the euro currency was launched, at first existing virtually for accounting and financial transactions and then three years later as notes and coins.

Here is a recap of its defining moments. Conversion rate On December 31, 1998 on the eve of the euro launch as planned in the European Union’s Maastricht Treaty, the definitive conversion rates are revealed to great fanfare in Brussels: one euro will buy 1.95583 Deutsche Marks, 6.55957 French francs and 1.936,27 Italian lire.

Tens of thousands of people in banks and European stock exchanges immediately get to work to ensure everything is ready and in place when markets reopen on January 4.

Shops that displayed prices in both currencies with approximate exchange rates update their tags. Official currency On January 1, 1999 the euro becomes the official currency for 291 million people in 11 countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

The new money can be used for virtual bank operations, payments by cheque, traveller’s cheque and bank card.

January 4 is the euro’s baptism on European exchange markets. One euro exchanges for more than US$1.18. But weeks later it slides to less than a dollar and at the end of October it hits its lowest rate ever, at US$0.8230.

On January 1, 2001 Greece becomes the 12th country to adopt the single currency. Coins and notes A year later the euro becomes tangible – some 15 billion notes and more than 50 billion coins are put into circulation, shaking up the lives of 304 million Europeans.

People familiarise themselves with the single currency, sometimes using pocket calculators to make it easier to work out conversions.

Unlike country- specific currencies, the euro notes show no national symbols, opting instead for bridges and windows.

A period of two currencies in circulation in each country in the eurozone begins as national currencies are gradually phased out, lasting until March 1.

On July 15 the euro reaches parity with the dollar again. More countries In 2003 Sweden, in a referendum, joins Denmark and Britain in rejecting the single currency.

Elsewhere, new EU member countries adopt the single currency: Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and Lithuania in 2015. Debt crisis On July 15, 2008 the euro reaches a historic exchange rate high, trading at US$1.6038 as the US is rocked by a subprime mortgage crisis. That November the eur ozone enters a recession lasting a year.

In 2010 the EU is mired in a debt crisis. In May the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) provide a 110-billion-euro bailout for Greece, which in turn commits to a severe austerity plan. A month later the euro plunges below US$1.20.

In November, Ireland, where banks are crippled by debt, also obtains an EU/IMF bailout plan of 85 billion euros.

Portugal obtains a 78-billioneuro international bailout in May 2011. Saving the euro On July 25, 2012 Spain’s longterm interest rate soars above 7.6 percent sparking fears of a euro collapse. A day later European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi promises to do “whatever it takes to preserve the euro”.

In August the ECB buys back in one week bonds of eurozone nations costing 22 billion euros to support Italy and Spain.

The EU accepts in October to wipe a part of the Greek debt along with a new set of loans. Avoiding ‘Grexit’ In May 2014 the single currency nears US$1.40, hitting exports. Then months later it comes close to US$1.05 in a tumbling that is linked to the buying of assets by the ECB to support the economy.

In July the next year Greece obtains a third bailout aimed at keeping it from crashing out of the eurozone, or “Grexit”.