The Euro pushed higher against the Pound after the UK currency’s recent run of gains was deemed overdone. The Pound also slipped against the US Dollar.
“We’ve had a stellar run with sterling for quite some time now,” said Neil Mellor, a currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon in London. “It’s been on an uptrend against the dollar since mid-November. That alone provides every reason to expect some sort of curtailment in the trend.”
The Euro also found support as EU finance ministers edged closer to reaching a deal on a bank plan. Talks in Brussels dragged on for 15 hours as the ministers talked it out but alas as dawn broke this morning no deal was conclusively reached. Some progress was made however and that was enough to buoy the single currency. The ministers are due to return on the 19th of December to thrash out a deal before its year-end deadline is reached.
The Euro is also continuing to find support from the ECB’s decision to hold off on imposing negative rates and monetary easing measures.
“The market was positioned for a weaker Euro in expectation of negative rates and what has changed is that we saw a strong implication that this is not necessarily going to be the case. There’s been a buying back of the Euro by global investors. Meanwhile, you’ve got Euro-zone economic data looking OK as well,” said the head of European hedge fund sales at Mizuho Bank Ltd.
The Euro was also support by data which showed that inflation in Germany increased by 1.3% in November, up from the previous month’s figure of 1.2%. In a separate report released by the Bank of France, the nation’s current account deficit narrowed in October to €-1.2 billion, an improvement on September’s figure of €-3.6 billion.
Traders widely ignored data which showed that unemployment increased in Greece and a report which showed that industrial production in Ireland came in well below expectations in October.
Current Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3765
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8397
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.5103
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6676
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7264
The Pound Sterling /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1906
The Australian Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6615
The New Zealand Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.5996