Britain risks losing trade, inward investment and political influence if it does not join the European single currency, according to a report sponsored by a pro-euro pressure group released today.
Failure to join the single currency could also weaken financial markets and force prices up in Britain, said an international commission of 11 economists.
Their study was drawn up over six months by a panel commissioned by the Britain in Europe pressure group, but it said the experts were left free to come to their own conclusions.
The choice facing Britain was not between signing up to the euro or maintaining the status quo, but between joining or facing an uncertain future, the experts warned, in what was billed as the first independent study of the impact for Britain of staying out.
British Chancellor Gordon Brown must announce by early June whether or not Britain has passed the Labour government's five self-imposed economic tests for euro membership. If it has, a referendum on the issue will be held, though there is speculation that Prime Minister Tony Blair and Brown have already agreed that the verdict of the tests will not be positive.
Today's report was released as former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook urged the British government on Tuesday to announce a timetable to adopt the euro by January 2007.
