GERMANY: Germans increasingly shun Euros in favour of regional currencies.

Germans no longer have their precious marks, but more and more they are using some 20 regional currencies to pay for everyday goods. The alternative money's popularity is growing rapidly and financial experts say they pose no danger to the stability of the euro. According to currency experts, new alternative paying methods are being introduced in Germany about every two months and one of the most successful is the "Chiemgauer" (pron.: KEEM-gower) in the Bavarian Chiemgau region, near the border with Austria. In 2006, goods worth almost 1.5 million euros (1.97 million U.S. dollars) changed hands using the alternative currency in the Chiemgau districts of Traunstein and Rosenheim alone, twice the amount from 2005. More than 550 local shops in the region now trade in Chiemgauer, among them super markets, restaurants and barber shops. Chiemgauer are sold in denominations of 1 to 30 and the back of the bills are decorated with small paintings from local artists. In order to trade in Chiemgauer, customers first have to join the Chiemgauer e.V. club. It is sold at places like the local tourist office in Traunstein where shoppers can buy the regional currency at a one to one ratio to the euro. Once shop owners change the Chiemgauer back to euros, they lose 5 percent but it's still worth the effort, they say. Alexander Jaeger, a shop owner who accepts both euros and the Chiemgauer, told Reuters Television that the regional currency "creates a customer loyalty which means there is an excellent contact with our regular customers or other customers who have used the Chiemgauer as a means of payment before." Christian Gelleri was one of the co-founders of the regional currency and heads the Chiemgauer e.V. club. "The original idea was to create a balance between globalisation and regionalisation, not to oppose globalisation or the euro," Gelleri said. Financial experts like Berlin Free University (FU) economics professor Helge Berger agree. "I think it's very important to have a stable currency for such a large economic area and the euro is a stable currency," Berger said about the European Union. "If there were tendencies to dissolve or threaten this stability with regional currencies or separate, parallel currencies then they would have to be banned for rational reasons. The coexistence of the euro and these regional currencies exists because the regional currencies are no serious threat to the euro," Berger added. ($1=.7611 Euro) ber/jm/jrc

ITN Source | February 22, 2007

Tags:. .serious. .restaurants. .european. .economics. .christian