Price transparency, exchange rate stability and low interest rates have given business powerful incentives to rationalise their supply chains, cut costs and look for new ways to win a competitive edge. The European market is larger in size than either the US or Japan. But to date the seamless nature of the US market has meant that it has allowed companies to easily reach their optimal size and launch innovative products on to the world market, leaving Europe behind. Outside the euro, UK companies are less well placed to challenge the best in the world and to remain competitive with companies in the Eurozone. Those who talk of ruling out British membership of the single currency put British prosperity at risk.
British businesspeople have a part to play in protecting Britain's future.
They cannot put their heads in the sand and wish the euro away. The fact of the matter is that it exists. We will have to decide whether it is in our interests to be part of it. The experience of the last two years has shown that there are costs to staying outside a large single currency bloc on our doorstep. For inward investors who come here to export to the European Union, Britain is now losing some of its allure.