Italy was yesterday the one euro-zone country reporting widespread problems with the introduction of euro notes and coins as long and sometimes angry queues formed at banks, post offices, railway stations and motorway tolls across the country.
Although the introduction of the Euro appeared to go smoothly in most of the other 11 member states, Italy's main news agency, Ansa, reported that police had been called to resolve dozens of disputes at banks and post offices in Rome and Naples.
Several factors appeared to be weighing heavily on the Italian banking and retail systems. Seven million Italian pensioners were yesterday entitled to withdraw their monthly pension, leading to long queues at post offices.
There were signs, too, of too few euro coins in circulation to make the new currency tradeable. The Italian authorities said retailers had taken up only 30-40 per cent of the euro starter kits made available before January 1st.
Confesercenti, an organisation representing small businesses, said only 10 per cent of its members were giving change in euro. The Bank of Italy insisted last night that the first day of trading in the euro had gone well. "As things currently stand, the changeover operation is going completely well, as is occurring in other states," said Antonio Finocchiaro, the bank's deputy director general.
The Association of Italian Banks also made reassuring noises, announcing that 70 per cent of cash machines were distributing the new currency.
But for many Italians, the first day of the euro was a stressful one. At Rome's Termini station, passengers waited in queues for at least one and a half hours to book rail tickets. Italy's state rail company was blamed for having distributed faulty software to 2,400 travel agents across the country, making it impossible for them to book rail tickets.
Naples appeared to be particularly badly affected. News agencies reported that pensioners were forced to wait as long as four hours to collect their pensions. The city authorities were inundated with calls from businesses that had not obtained euro-denominated cash registers.
A political row was also brewing last night over accusations that some retailers were illegally rounding up prices. Pierluigi Bersani, a leading figure in the opposition centre-left, accused the government of and not doing enough to stop the practise. - (Financial Times service)