Last week the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi held a press conference where he commented on a number of issues surrounding trade and monetary policy.
In particular, Draghi’s comments in relation to future the bank’s Quantitative Easing (QE) programme; which is essentially the introduction of new money into the money supply of the economy by the bank in order to boost economic growth, created a negative tone for the EUR as he gave little away surrounding the future of the programme which means that it won’t be until June before markets learn of the bank’s longer term plans.
The comments caused a slight slump in value of the currency, particularly against USD and the GBP, however over the weekend, the EUR has in fact regained some ground, particularly against GBP, but there’s been less of a regression against the USD which is likely due to alleviated concerns surrounding US - China trade wars, encouraging more Dollar buyers.
In the table below you’ll see high to low GBP/EUR exchange rate movement when exchanging £200,000 to Euros in the last week:
Currency Pair | % Change | Difference on £200,000 | |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 1.80% | €4083 |
This week is going to be a big week for the EUR as there are two key data releases, which will directly affect market confidence.
GDP figures are due on Wednesday for the Eurozone, which is expected to have slowed down since the end of last year by 0.3%, although this does not come as too much of a surprise, following “several quarters of higher than expected growth” according to Draghi at the ECB press conference last week.
There is also further inflation data on Thursday in the form of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which in turn is expected to fall by 0.1%.
If these figures are in line with expectations, EUR sellers could benefit by acting sooner rather than later as it could be a tough week for the currency.
For more information on how future data releases could affect your currency requirement, call our currency brokers on 01494 725 353.