The Euro to Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP) exchange rate Tumbled by more than 0.50% on Wednesday as the European Central Bank’s (ECB) press conference was interrupted by an anti-ECB protestor storming the stage.
The Euro to Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP) exchange rate fell to a session low of 0.7163
The single currency has been under increasing pressure in recent sessions as the ECB’s quantitative easing programme acts as a weight and as economists grow increasingly concerned over the Greek situation.
Interest rates were left unchanged at the record low level of 0.05%, a decision that was widely forecast by economists.
Drama came as the ECB President’s press conference, which followed the rate decision; Mario was interrupted by a protestor storming the stage. ECB President Mario Draghi was attacked by a protestor shouting, ‘End the ECB dictatorship!”
A woman leapt onto the table where Draghi was delivering his post interest rate decision statement and dropped confetti over the clearly surprised ECB leader. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the incident will be considered a major security breach.
‘A female protestor interrupted the ECB’s press conference on Wednesday, screaming ‘End of ECB dictatorship’ while she rushed the stage and threw what looked like confetti. Draghi reappeared on stage a few minutes later and carried on with his remarks. Some activits accuse the ECB of trying to enforce budget austerity measures on Eurozone countries such as Greece, that are under financial bailout programs,’ said the Associated Press.
Protester disrupts ECB president Mario Draghi’s press conference https://t.co/Wb4ibqjW5I
— RTÉ Business (@RTEbusiness) April 15, 2015
The single currency was unable to gain support from data released earlier in the session, which showed that inflation in Germany appears to be improving. Instead, investors are focused on the Greek situation.
European officials said that Athens is running out of time to deliver the reform measures needed for them to unfreeze the aid needed to prevent the nation from going bust. The German Finance Ministry added the sentiment by saying that Greece will not receive any aid payment this month as negotiations have stalled.
The Euro fell as German Finance Ministry spokesperson Friederike von Tuesenhausen said; ‘This is a complex process and no one in the Euro group expects that this could be completed by April 24. I said last time that there has been progress, but that really there is still a considerable need for negotiations. I checked today and got the answer that things have not really changed.’
The Euro to US Dollar Exchange Rate Fell To a Session Low of 1.0569
The Euro managed to consolidate some of its earlier losses against the US Dollar after Draghi said that the central bank is expected to fulfil its €1 trillion QE programme.
The US currency gave up some ground after US Mortgage applications data came in well below forecasts and as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that manufacturing activity in the state fell from a reading of 6.90 to -1.19 April.
