On Wednesday the Euro’s bullish relationship with peers like the US Dollar continued as another piece of upbeat economic data for the Eurozone was released.
The common currency was already close to a two-year high against the ‘Greenback’ as local trading opened having gained on its US rival as a result of strong manufacturing and sentiment figures for the 17-nation currency bloc and its largest economy.
The Euro is currently trading against the US Dollar in the region of 1.3764
Although investors are focusing on the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee announcement, which may confirm the Fed’s intention to taper the current level of asset purchases, today’s German IFO data helped the Euro consolidate gains.
The measure of the current situation may have declined unexpectedly, easing from 112.2 to 111.6 in December, but the gauge of future expectations climbed by more than anticipated, strengthening from 106.4 to 107.4.
Germany’s IFO business climate index came in at 109.5 (a twenty-month high) as forecast.
The business confidence figure was up from 109.3 in November and is the latest in a series of signs that Germany’s economic recovery is gathering momentum.
However, while this result was positive and lent the Euro support, one Frankfurt-based industry expert did comment; ‘Next year, compared with the last two years, we will have rather strong growth but not a boom. We still see some problems in the Euro area. […] There will be no significant improvement of the situation in large countries like Italy and France, and this will put a brake on the German economy’.
Additional EUR/USD volatility is likely to occur in response to the highly-anticipated FOMC policy decision.
US mortgage approvals and business confidence reports will also be of interest.
Meanwhile, the EUR/GBP pairing shed gains as UK employment data surpassed expectations, with the nation’s unemployment rate unexpectedly falling to 7.4 per cent in the three months to October rather than holding at 7.6 per cent.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
As of 10:10 GMT
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3764 <
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8413 <
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.5434 <
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6683 >
The Euro/ Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4587 <
