Tag Archives: the euro

The Calm Before The Storm

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Following the turbulent river of news which has flowed unrelentingly through the principal European media outlets since Sunday night, today we seem to be swimming in a relative ocean of calm. This is very deceptive. Today the Netherlands is voting and tomorrow the ECB will have a closely watched meeting which may potentially have significant consequences for the EU economy.

If at this stage there seems little doubt about the outcome of the Dutch vote (more worthy of interest will be the level of participation and the size of the ‘no’ majority), we are also unlikely to see anything earth shattering happening over at the ECB. It is unlikely that there will be any change in the Central Bank’s two per cent interest rate policy (or twirp, as some wit at Morgan Stanley has christened it, after the rather better known zero rate (or zirp) policy at the Bank of Japan). All the watching eyes inevitably be focussed on the press conference, and on Trichet’s handling of the inevitable questions (worth a look at the 2:30pm webcast).

So if today we are enjoying a ‘day of reflection’, tomorrow we will undoubtedly see battle rejoined. In particular, it will be ‘D’ – or decision – day for Barroso and the EU Commission.
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Euro Still Dropping

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Having just posted on Afoe suggesting I expect a quieter day, I have just noticed this:

“The euro fell against the dollar after the manufacturing report. The European single currency traded at $1.2285 at 10:15 a.m. in Frankfurt, down from $1.2304 late yesterday in New York, according to electronic foreign-exchange dealing system EBS.”

Still this fits in with the general picture I described, every piece of bad news can drive down euro/USD. In this case it was the manufacturing survey. I suppose, taking this a step at a time, the question is how long it needs before we break below $1.20, at this rate, and if we get a bad enough day tomorrow, we can be getting near by the end of the week. Maybe this depends on the US jobs data on Friday. I should write a post entitled eurozone/USA: the great race to the bottom (remember most US commentators are expecting a further dollar decline associated with the current account deficit).

I agree with an earlier commentator (and MS’s Stephen Yen: parity by year’s end would be OK from the European end (although not in Washington). The thing is, by years end, right now what we need is someone to reach for the handbreak.

Update: It reach $1.2257 at 10:30 a.m. in London. In part this is a result of a story in Germany’s Stern magazine.

Update 2: 13:00 Washington post has this:

“The euro dropped to $1.2255 in European trading, also propelled downward by an unsourced report in the German weekly Stern that a possible failure of the monetary union was discussed at a meeting last week attended by Germany’s finance minister and central bank chief.”

Update 3 “The euro fell as low $1.2224 in European trading before climbing back to $1.2242, still down from $1.2312 in New York late Tuesday”.

‘Gloom’ After French Vote

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The Washington Times (of all places) carries a UPI text about a Deutsch Bank research note on the economic consequences of the French ‘no’:

“France’s rejection of the European Union constitutional treaty by a majority of 54.9 percent is a severe blow to European integration and threatens to depress European economy back into eurosclerosis as in the 1980s, warns Deutsche Bank in a research analysis published Monday.”
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The Euro Continues Its Decline

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The euro fell to a seven-month low in Asia and had the biggest fluctuation of any currency on concern the rejection of a proposed European Union constitution will slow the region’s economic integration…………

Against the dollar, the euro fell to $1.2370, the lowest since Oct. 14. It bought $1.2390 at 2:05 p.m. in Tokyo from $1.2475 late in Asia yesterday, according to electronic currency- dealing system EBS. The euro will probably decline toward $1.22, Jacobs said.

Update I: Now it’s hit $1.2371.

The euro’s initially muted reaction to the French vote on a holiday-thinned Monday turned into a sharp fall when it broke below key $1.2450 levels, pushing as low as $1.2371.

Now it’s at 1.2315, and this is also becoming a dollar rise story as the yen is also begining to fall against the USD.

“The Euro lost support at 1.2450 in Asia on Tuesday and this pushed the Euro down to a low of 1.2315. The convincing break below 1.25 against the US currency will reinforce negative Euro sentiment and will raise speculation over a move towards the 1.20 level in the medium term.”

To be continued.

French Referendum: Italian Bonds Hit

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What, you may ask, has Italian government debt got to do with the French ‘no’ vote: everything would be my answer. (If you want to know more about this, thumb down my euro posts). The lack of a convincing advance towards political union makes Italian government debt riskier, so they have to pay more interest. This is, at present just a small breach, but it is one which is widening, and I fear this is the point at which the euro dyke will eventually breach:

“The euro hit a fresh 7-month low against the dollar and Italian government bonds came under strain on Monday after French voters gave a decisive thumbs-down to the proposed European Union constitution…………….The strains the French vote could have on the euro zone were reflected in government bonds. The spread on Italian BTP bonds over German debt touched 23 basis points, the highest level since November 2002, as so-called peripheral euro zone bonds suffered.”

The problem is that the markets have now ‘wised up’ to the problem, and will now be tracking Italian government debt as an issue in itself.

Czech Republic Having Second Thoughts

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I missed this at the time, but apparently officials responsible for monetary policy in the Czech Republic are begining to have second thoughts about joining the euro.

“Czech central bank policy maker Robert Holman said the government should abandon plans to adopt the euro by 2010 because joining the single currency may stifle growth, the first central banker in the country to call for a delay.

“I would not rush with euro adoption because it represents significant risks for us,” said Holman, 51, who joined the bank’s board on Feb. 13, in a May 18 interview in Prague. “The euro zone economy has been growing very slowly in the past five years, and among other factors, it could have been caused by having the common currency.””
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Euro Under Pressure

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The euro continues its fall against the dollar today after yet another opinion poll showed French opposition to the European Union constitution continues to strengthen before Sunday’s referendum. Against the dollar, the euro fell to $1.2545 at 8:33 a.m. in London, from $1.2601 late yesterday in New York. The euro wasn’t exactly strengthened by the fact that Sarkozy had to deny a reprot that he had already informed Chirac that the vote was lost.

In itself this decline – in fact the euro has fallen against the dollar by 7.9% so far this year – is relatively benign, and may even be beneficial for hard pressed exporters. Mathew Lynn provides a reasonably summary of the issues here.

The problem is that there are a confluence of problems – the constitution, the absence of growth, elections in Germany, Italy and Portugal and the Stability and Growth pact, and now, divisions and lack of solidity in the ECB. The danger is that uncertainty among politicians following from a ‘no’ hangover, could be just what it takes to turn a benign slide into a run.

Crisis Looming At The ECB?

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A right royal row is brewing at the ECB. Basically the old guard theorists of the ‘one size fits all’ monetary policy are being challenged by more pragmatic observers of day to day realities. For the moments it is the politicians who are making the running (but there are plenty of competent economists in Germany and Italy who are ready to back them up), and yesterday the OECD joined the fray.
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Dutch Referendum: Euro-scepticism

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Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm is in the news again. Last time I read about him it was because he had started a weblog. This time the issue is different: he describes himself as being “totally fed up” with the fact the Dutch public thinks that it was effectively robbed by the way the euro was introduced.

Behind this ‘frustration’ lies a startk reality: the controversy over the valuation of the the guilder at the time of monetary union is one of the key factors fuelling the ‘no’camp in the forthcoming referendum.
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