A study by an international consultancy shows Austria and Finland have gained the most from the euro common currency, though every eurozone country had profitted to some extent, dpa cited a German newspaper as reporting Tuesday. Die Welt said it had had exclusive access to the findings by McKinsey. A widespread view that some nations had profited at the expense of others was false, said McKinsey spokesman, Eckart Windhagen. Without the euro, every nation would have been worse off. "There is no single euro nation that has not profited from the common currency," he said. The data showed that having the common currency between 1999 and 2010 had increased Austrian gross domestic product (GDP) by 7.8 per cent. Comparable figures for Finland, Germany and the Netherlands were 6.7, 6.4 and 6.2 per cent respectively. A chart in Die Welt showed the gains for Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece, all nations that have suffered in the sovereign debt crisis, were 2.7, 2.1, 0.7 and 0.1 per cent respectively. It said that in 2010, 332 billion euros of output or 3.6 per cent of overall GDP had been attributable to the convenience of the euro. McKinsey counted the effects of stepped-up trade, lower interest rates and the elimination of foreign exchange risks. Weaker economies profited less because they had had to sustain more pressure to become competitive, Windhagen said.
