Shobhit Seth 2016年7月18日
歐盟的形成為在單一貨幣（歐元）下形成一個統一的多國金融系統鋪平了道路。雖然大多數歐盟成員國都採用了歐元，但是還有一少部分國家決定堅持使用自己本國的法定貨幣，例如英國、丹麥和瑞典。本文將讨論為什麼一些歐盟成員國不使用歐元和這將為其經濟帶來什麼好處？
歐盟有28個成員國，其中9個國家不在使用歐元的統一貨幣體系歐元區中。英國和丹麥就是這其中的兩個國家，他們被合法的免除使用歐元。所有其他國家在滿足一定標準後必須加入歐元區。然而這些國家有權利推遲達到歐元區標準的時間，從而推遲採用歐元的時間。
歐盟國家的文化、氣候、人口和經濟存在著差異。這些國家面臨的金融需求和挑戰也不一樣。共同貨幣把統一實行的中央貨幣政策強加給這些國家。然而問題是對一個歐元區國家經濟來說很好的政策可能根本不適合另一個國家。大多數未加入歐元區的國家是為了保持經濟獨立。下面是一些歐盟國家為什麼不使用歐元的一些原因。
保持獨立起草貨幣政策的能力。因為歐洲央行（ECB）為所有的歐元區國家設定經濟和貨幣政策，歐元區國家沒有為本國制定政策的權利。非歐元區國家英國成功從2007-2008經濟危機中快速複蘇是因為迅速在2008年10月下調了利率和在2009年三月展開了量化寬松。相反，歐洲央行直到2015年才開始量化寬松。
獨立處理國家的特殊挑戰。每個國家都面臨不同的挑戰。例如，希臘利率變動的敏感性高，因為其大部分抵押貸款是可變動利率而不是固定利率。然而，限於歐洲央行的規定，希臘不能獨立實行對其經濟和民衆最有利的利率。與此同時，英國經濟對利率變化也非常敏感。但是英國是非歐元區國家，它可以通過其央行英格蘭銀行把利率控制在低水平。
最後貸款人的獨立。一個國家的經濟對國債收益率非常敏感。同樣的，非歐元區國家在這上面也有優勢。他們有自己的中央銀行能夠成為該國債務的最後貸款人。一旦債券收益率上升，這些中央銀行可以開始購買債券從而提供市場的流動性。歐元區國家的央行是歐洲央行，但是歐洲央行不會在那種情況下購買成員國債券。結果是像意大利這樣的國家就必須面對債券收益率上漲帶來的挑戰。
獨立的通脹控制措施。當一個經濟體的通脹上升，一個有效的應對措施是提高利率。非歐元區國家可以通過他們獨立的監管部門完成這一舉動。歐元區國家卻不總是能有這一選擇。例如，經濟危機之後，歐洲央行因為擔心德國的通脹過高而提高利率。這一舉措對德國有利，但是像意大利和葡萄牙的其他國家卻因此遭受了損失。
能獨立的進行貨幣貶值。國家可能因為週期性高通脹、高工資、出口減少或者工業產能降低而面臨經濟挑戰。這些情況可以通過對該國貨幣進行貶值得到緩解，貨幣貶值能使該國出口商品更加便宜和更具吸引力，並能吸引國外投資者。非歐元區國家可以根據需要自行對貨幣貶值。然而歐元區國家卻不能獨立改變貨幣價值，因為這是歐洲央行控制的並且會對其他19個國家造成影響。
總結
歐元剛推出時給歐元起國家帶來了繁榮。這個統一貨幣的使用消除了匯率波動（和相關成本）、帶來了貨幣統一的歐洲市場和價格透明度。然而，2007-2008的金融危機暴露了歐元的一些缺陷。一些歐元區經濟體遭受了比其它國家更大的損失（例如希臘、西班牙、意大利和葡萄牙）。由於缺乏經濟獨立性，這些國家無法制定貨幣政策促進自身經濟的複蘇。歐元的未來取決於歐盟政策能否在單一貨幣政策下解決不同國家的經濟挑戰。
Why These European Countries Don't Use The Euro
By Shobhit Seth | Updated July 18, 2016—3:03 PM EDT
The formation of the European Union (EU) paved the way for a unified, multicountry financial system under a single currency—the euro. While most EU member nations agreed to adopt the euro, a few, like the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden (among others), have decided to stick with their own legacy currencies. This article discusses the reasons why some EU nations have shied away from the euro and what advantages this may confer on their economies.
There are currently 28 nations in the European Union and of these, nine countries are not in the eurozone—the unified monetary system using the euro. Two of these countries, the United Kingdom and Denmark, are legally exempt from ever adopting the euro (the UK has voted to leave the EU, see Brexit). All other EU countries must enter the eurozone after meeting certain criteria. Countries, however, do have the right to put off meeting the eurozone criteria and thereby postpone their adoption of the euro.
EU nations are diverse in culture, climate, population, and economy. Nations have different financial needs and challenges to address. The common currency imposes a system of central monetary policy applied uniformly. The problem, however, is what’s good for the economy of one eurozone nation may be terrible for another. Most EU nations that have avoided the eurozone do so to maintain economic independence. Here are a few reasons why many EU nations don’t use the euro.
Independence in Drafting Monetary Policies: Since the European Central Bank (ECB) sets the economic and monetary policies for all eurozone nations, there is no independence for an individual state to craft policies tailored for its own conditions. The UK, a non-euro county, may have managed to recover from the 2007-2008 financial crisis by quickly cutting domestic interest rates in October of 2008 and initiating a quantitative easing program in March of 2009. In contrast, the European Central Bank waited until 2015 to start its quantitative easing program (creating money to buy government bonds in order to spur the economy).
Independence in Handling Country-Specific Challenges: Every economy has its own challenges. Greece, for example, has high sensitivity to interest rate changes, as most of its mortgages are on variable interest rate rather than fixed. However, being bound by European Central Bank regulations, Greece does not have independence to manage interest rates to most benefit its people and economy. Meanwhile, the UK economy is also very sensitive to interest rate changes. But as a non-eurozone country, it was able to keep interest rates low through its central bank, the Bank of England.
Independent Lender of Last Resort: A country’s economy is highly sensitive to the Treasury bond yields. Again, non-euro countries have the advantage here. They have their own independent central banks which are able to act as the lender of last resort for the country’s debt. In case of rising bond yields, these central banks start buying the bonds and in that way increase liquidity in the markets. Eurozone countries have the ECB as their central bank, but the ECB does not buy member-nation specific bonds in such situations. The result is that countries like Italy have faced major challenges due to increased bond yields.
Independence in Inflation-Controlling Measures: When inflation rises in an economy, an effective response is to increase interest rates. Non-euro countries can do this through the monetary policy of their independent regulators. Eurozone countries don’t always have that option. For example, following the economic crisis, the European Central Bank raised interest rates fearing high inflation in Germany. The move helped Germany, but other eurozone nations like Italy and Portugal suffered under the high interest rates.
Independence for Currency Devaluation: Nations can face economic challenges due to periodic cycles of high inflation, high wages, reduced exports, or reduced industrial production. Such situations can be efficiently handled by devaluing the nation’s currency, which makes exports cheaper and more competitive and encourages foreign investments. Non-euro countries can devalue their respective currencies as needed. However, eurozone cannot independently change euro valuation—it affects 19 other countries and is controlled by the European Central Bank.
The Bottom Line
Eurozone nations first thrived under the euro. The common currency brought with it the elimination of exchange rate volatility (and associated costs), easy access to a large and monetarily unified European market, and price transparency. However, the financial crisis of 2007-2008 revealed some pitfalls of the euro. Some eurozone economies suffered more than others (examples are Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal). Due to the lack of economic independence, these countries could not set monetary policy to best foster their own recoveries. The future of the euro will depend on how EU policies evolve to address the monetary challenges of individual nations under a single monetary policy.
本文翻譯由兄弟財經提供
文章來源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/050515/why-these-european-countries-dont-use-euro.asp