And with the current Euro-Sterling rate, few would expect a massive surge in southerners going north to get soft drinks - even with Christmas approaching.
Anyone serving the euro-zone from Britain must either live with sterling's variability against the euro or hedge against exchange-rate fluctuations as far as they can.
That financial crisis, in the course of which the Italian lira was ejected from Europe's pre-euro exchange-rate system (along with Britain's pound sterling) coincided with a huge political crisis, as corruption investigations brought crashing down the parties that had dominated Italian politics for the past 40 years.
Just across the English Channel, a less-dovish European Central Bank (ECB) policy stance and the ongoing euro-lending indicator improvements has the Pound Sterling playing second fiddle.
The relative strength of the euro and sterling have greatly reduced the pain of dollar-price increases for firms in Europe (see chart).
ECONOMIST: Are companies protesting too much about high oil prices?
The relative strength of the euro and sterling has greatly reduced the pain of dollar-price increases for firms in Europe (see chart).
He added that the industry is facing problems including the exchange rate between sterling and the Euro which meant an effectual 15-18% increase in price, the collapse in the Far East economy which has made materials coming from there much cheaper and the recent doubling of oil prices in Northern Ireland.
Britain may want sterling to be brought in at a lower rate than euro-zone governments would like.
Against the dollar, sterling fell to a seven-month low, and against the euro it was nearing a 15-month low.
So far, though, Britain's absence from the euro seems to have had no adverse effect on investment, even in the sterling-sensitive car industry.
The longer sterling stays at around its recent levels, the stronger will be the euro-zone countries' demands that the pound join their monetary union at 75 pence, say, rather than 70 pence to the euro.
Another alternative is a greater reliance on SDRs, the IMF's quasi-currency, which operates as a claim on a basket of currencies: the dollar, euro, sterling and yen.
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