Germans to boycott shops in anti-euro protest

Consumers are planning to stage a one-day boycott of shops in Germany to protest against the euro.

The plan started out as a chain-email campaign against price hikes blamed on the new currency.

But it has grown into a resistance movement which looks like having a significant impact.

The consumer strike calls for a boycott of shops, stores, restaurants, hair salons, garages and all other outlets for a 12-hour period on July 1.

The anonymous e-mail has been circulating in Germany for several weeks and was started by popular disgust at the "Teuro" - the new word for the euro coming from the German word teuer, meaning expensive.

Thousands of shoppers have pledged to stay at home on July 1 in their small revolt against a currency which they say has pushed prices sky high.

The German Government is so concerned about rising prices that last month it staged a one-day seminar in Berlin with representatives from various trade groups in a bid to see how to lower prices.

Consumers Carola and Karsten Haensel, from Berlin, said: "Everyone is in the same boat, we are all being ripped off. This is just one way of showing that we disapprove of the euro."

But Nils Busch-Petersen, of the Berlin Retailer's Association, said: "This will really hit the small trader when it is the bigger supermarkets and chain stores that have ramped up prices. We understand people's anxieties about the euro and prices but I don't know who this will harm the most."

The Government says it disapproves of a consumer boycott and hopes "common sense" will prevail.