Ahead of this afternoon’s EU economic policy recommendations for the Eurozone and German Consumer Price Index figures, the Euro recorded modest gains against the US Dollar and British Pound.
The Euro Exchange Rate was in the region of 1.2891 against the US Dollar as of 11:20 am GMT
The common currency modestly strengthened despite German joblessness increasing by more than four times the amount initially estimated.
Although German unemployment increased by 21 thousand in May (far more than the 5 thousand estimated and following on from April’s 6 thousand gain) the German unemployment rate held at its near twenty-year low of 6.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, The OECD (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) today asserted that the European Central Bank needs to come to the Eurozone’s rescue if the currency bloc is going to claw its way from its deepening recession.
The OECD is calling for more extreme steps than interest rate cuts to be taken, stating: ‘Europe is in a dire situation. We think that the Eurozone could consider more aggressive options. We could call it a Eurozone style quantitative easing’.
As well as predicting economic contraction of 0.6 per cent for the Eurozone’s output this year, the OECD also slashed the growth prospects of France (to contraction of 0.3 per cent in 2013) Greece (to contraction of 1.2 per cent in 2014) Portugal (to contraction of 2.7 per cent this year) and Italy (to contraction of 1.8 per cent this year).
In other Eurozone news, economists are expecting this afternoon’s German inflation report to show acceleration, with the inflation rate rising to 1.4 per cent in May from the previous months near 3-year low of 1.1 per cent.
As Christian Lenk of DZ Bank AG notes: ‘In the last few months, there has been a strong downward trend in German inflation and statistically we’re having a small recoil effect from that. We still see recovery in the economy in the second half of this year, even if the basis for that has to be laid through the summer months.’
Current Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
< Lower > Higher – Little Changed
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.2891 >
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8560 >
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3465 >
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.5939 >
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7760 <
The Pound Sterling /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1684 <
The Australian Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7437 <
The New Zealand Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6266 <
(Correct as of 11:20 GMT)
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