Countries participating: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

Population: 291 million people live in the euro zone (compared with 269 million people in the United States and 126 million in Japan).

Area: 2,365,000 square kilometres

Economy: The euro zone had a gross domestic product of 5.55 trillion Ecu ($6.51 trillion) in 1997, compared with 6.85 trillion Ecu for the United States and 3.71 trillion Ecu for Japan.

Public and private services account for 67.9 per cent of the euro zone's economy, compared with 30.2 per cent for industry and 1.8 per cent for agriculture.

Economic growth: In 1997, the economy of the 11 euro-zone countries grew by 2.5per cent, compared with 3.8 per cent growth in the United States and 0.9 per cent in Japan. The European Commission forecasts that the euro-zone economy will grow by 3.0 per cent in 1998, 2.6 per cent in 1999 and by 2.9 per cent in 2000.

Inflation: Average consumer price inflation in the euro zone was 1 per cent in October.

Interest rates: Interest rates in the 11 euro-zone countries were recently cut to 3 per cent.

Unemployment: The jobless rate in the euro zone averaged 10.8 per cent in October. Unemployment rates range from around 2.2 per cent in Luxembourg to 18.2 per cent in Spain.

Industrial production: Industrial production in the 11 euro-zone nations grew by 0.6 per cent in July-September compared with previous three months.

Trade: The EU says the euro zone will form the world's greatest trading power with 1997 exports 25 per cent larger than those of the United States and twice those of Japan.The euro zone had a trade surplus of 32.8 billion Ecus inthe first six months of 1998 with exports of 392.1 billion Ecus and imports of 359.4 billion Ecus.