Angela Merkel’s stonking great victory in the weekend’s German federal elections helped the Euro strengthen against the Pound and trade close to a seven-month high against the US Dollar as the European session opened.
The Euro to Pound Exchange Rate is currently trading in the region of 0.8418 as of 12:40 GMT
After securing an impressive 41.5 per cent majority, Merkel is headed for the nation’s most decisive general election victory for over twenty years.
In response to the political result currency strategist Steven Englander stated; ‘This is a vote in favour of Merkel rather than a vote in favour of big changes. It’s most likely Merkel will govern in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats, so that’s a slight Euro positive because the government would be somewhat more friendly to the peripheral nations in the currency bloc.’
The EUR/GBP Exchange Rate hit a high of 0.8477
The Euro experienced minimal fluctuations following the release of a report showing that the Eurozone’s services sector grew at the fastest pace for over two years in September.
The services gauge for the 17-nation currency bloc climbed from 50.7 to 52.1 – trumping expectations for an increase to 51.8.
Similarly, a separate report showed that a measure of Germany’s service sector rose from 52.8 to 54.4 in September.
However, the German and Eurozone manufacturing sectors grew by less-than-expected, reinforcing ECB President Mario Draghi’s comments regarding the fragility of the currency bloc’s economic recovery.
Markit’s chief economist had this to say of the result; ‘It is particularly encouraging to see the business situation improved across the region. Although the upturn continued to be led by Germany, France saw the first increase in business since early-2012 and elsewhere growth was the strongest since early-2011. Employment continued to fall, though it is reassuring that the rate of job losses eased to only a very modest pace, suggesting that employment could start rising again soon.’
Although UK news was thin on the ground today, the EUR/GBP pairing’s upward momentum was tapered by the expectation that this week’s UK GDP figures will confirm second quarter economic expansion of 0.7 per cent.
Eurozone data to watch out for this week includes tomorrow’s German business climate and current assessment gauges, Wednesday’s German consumer confidence survey and Friday’s Eurozone economic/consumer/industrial confidence reports.
Current Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
< Lower > Higher
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3513 <
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8418 <
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4334 <
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6123 <
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7401 >
The Pound Sterling /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1880 >
The Australian Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6975 >
The New Zealand Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6200 >
(Correct as of 12:40 GMT)
Comments are closed.