Eleven European nations will have a single currency: the euro. Official exchange rates were announced December 31, but it will be 2002 before coins and bank notes are put in general circulation. The changeover will affect 290 million people in the countries adopting the new currency, from the northernmost Arctic reaches of Finland to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, just off the coast of Libya. Inhabitants of euroland speak 17 official languages. The euro will immediately be used by financial markets and for business transactions and international trade. Euroland will be the world's second-largest economy after the United States.