If Greece was hoping for some let up in the pressure being applied by its lenders the nation looks set for disappointment.
Yesterday, with investors already looking ahead to Germany’s September elections, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble asserted that Europe must continue leaning on Greece in order to ensure that the nation sticks to its austerity conditions.
Schäuble stated that the fact that Greece had been granted the next instalment of its bailout package didn’t mean that the country was being softly treated.
During a radio interview Schäuble commented: ‘The pressure remains, so this has nothing to do with the election schedule. They’re far from being over the mountain […] The development in Europe does not take into consideration election days in individual countries. This is a widespread assumption that is simply false.’
But with the all-important German election just two months away, it’s difficult not to tie any of the Eurozone’s largest economy’s decisions to Merkel’s desire for re-instatement.
The Euro/Pound pairing is currently trading in the region of 0.8631
Over the weekend Schäuble also noted that a second debt restructuring wouldn’t be granted to struggling Greece – despite many industry experts envisaging that the nation will need further aid.
Last week Tony Barber of the Financial Times commented on the possibility of a second Greek debt restructuring: ‘German voters already sense that some of the billions of Euros lavished on Greece since 2010 will probably never be repaid. To that extent, a second Greek debt restructuring would not shock German taxpayers and destabilise the political scene, although legal hurdles might need to be jumped at the nation’s constitutional court’.
As the European session opened the Euro was holding relatively steady against the British Pound.
An absence of pertinent economic news for the Eurozone could limit fluctuations in the common currency today, although movement in the EUR/GBP pairing could result from UK mortgage approval data.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
As of 08:45
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3267 <
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8631 <
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4357 <
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6424 <
The Euro/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3630 <