With just over a month to go before the all important German elections, Chancellor Angela Merkel is kicking up her heels and storming the campaign trail.
As a prominent figure in the Eurozone crisis and a popular candidate among the German populace, the world will be listening intently to anything Merkel has to say in the coming weeks.
Yesterday the stoic leader was warning against the pitfalls of excessive debt.
While addressing an animated crowd Merkel stated: ‘We’ve seen what can happen if you accumulate too much debt.’ She went on to mention higher borrowing costs and climbing interest rates before commenting: ‘Then you have unemployment – and at that point you have a spiral. […] I can’t promise that we won’t have more problems, but I can tell you that in the eight years that I’ve been Chancellor, we are in great respects doing better than we were then. I want us to be better positioned in four years than we are today.’
The Euro/Pound pairing is currently trading in the region of 0.8556
Although Merkel is held in high esteem by many of the German populace, she is far from universally lauded – as was proved yesterday. A group of youth protesters belonging to the opposition Social Democratic party chanted ‘Merkel out’ and blew whistles as the Chancellor was speaking.
In light of the recent positive data to come out of Germany, including yesterday’s better-than-forecast growth figures, it seems increasingly likely that Merkel will be re-elected to a third term. If she is many investors are hoping that the Eurozone will finally start to make progress in stabilising its banking sector, something which could boost confidence in the currency bloc and support its currency.
As the European session opened the Euro was stronger against a bearish US Dollar, but slightly softer against the Pound.
In a quiet news day for the Eurozone EUR/GBP movement is likely to be driven by UK retail sales data while US CPI will be the catalyst for EUR/USD fluctuations.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
As of 08:50
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3284 >
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8556 <
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4487 <
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6488 <
The Euro/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3695 <