With Greece and Italy seeing their industrial orders tumble and other European nations struggling to achieve growth it seems that the Germans are more upset about their thrashing in the Eurovision song contest.
The German populace is blaming their unexpectedly terrible performance at the singing contest on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tough handling of the Eurozone crisis. The regions strongest economy received no points from 34 of the 39 voting nations leaving it 21st out of the 26 competing nations. Even the Euro sceptic UK won more points as it came 19th.
“There’s obviously a political situation to keep in mind – I don’t want to say ‘this was 18 points for Angela Merkel’,” said Germany’s ARD TV network coordinator Thomas Schreiber. “But we all have to be aware that it wasn’t just Cascada up there on stage being judged, but all of Germany.”
Merkel is very popular in Germany for her strong stance during the Euro zone crisis, but is loathed in parts of Europe for insisting on painful austerity measures in countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy in exchange for rescue packages.
Whilst the Germans lament their terrible Eurovision performance Greece and Italy received some more bad news on Monday.
Greece saw industrial orders tumble by 12.7% in March, even worse than the same period as last year suggesting that the European Commission’s forecast that the economic situation in the crisis hit nation is improving is wishful thinking. Data released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority showed that orders for electrical equipment plummeted by 27% year-on-year. Orders for machinery and factory fell by a massive 30%. The Hellenic Statistical Authority also reported that turnover across Greek industrial firms was down by 11.5%, year-on-year, in March.
Italy meanwhile saw its orders decline by 10% on a year-by-year basis in March. Orders were slightly improved from February however. Industrial sales also fell by 7.6% year-on-year. New orders from within Italy slumped by 13.2% on a year-on-year basis in March, while overseas orders were down by 6.1%.
The Euro is trading up from a two-month low against the US Dollar after being weighed down by the dire data. The single currency however has found some support due to positive comments made by Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd C. Blankfein and the optimism generated by the USA’s economic recovery. Risk aversion is not as high as it was.
Current Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.2861
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8461
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3153
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.5781
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7773
The Pound Sterling /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1819
The Australian Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7604
The New Zealand Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.6334
(Correct as of 12:45pm GMT)