Nordic states itchy at non-euro status

REYKJAVIK:EUROPE'S NORDIC states debated last week whether to keep their own currencies or to seek shelter from the global crisis in the euro zone.

With the exception of euro-member Finland, the traditionally go-it-alone Nordic countries have independent currencies. But as the downturn has spread and hit the affluent region, weakening their currencies, the idea of adopting the euro has returned in Denmark and to a lesser extent in Sweden.

Norway and Iceland are not in the European Union. This probably accelerated the crisis in Iceland when its three top banks collapsed last October.

Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the crisis was fuelling support for Denmark joining the euro, and that this year he could decide on whether to hold another referendum on euro membership after a "no" vote in 2000. "The financial crisis has made the costs of staying outside visible - both the economic and the political costs," Rasmussen told Reuters at a Nordic regional summit near Reykjavic.

Sweden's prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt cast doubt on the Swedish political consensus that the euro issue should not be revisited until 2012. Swedes had rejected joining the currency in a 2003 referendum.