Euro is strengthening right now, gaining against its major counterparts on the latest ECB decision to stay the current course. There had been speculation that negative deposit rates were possible, but such an option has been put off for now, and the 17-nation currency is heading higher.
Euro is getting a boost today as Forex traders breathe a sigh of relief that the latest possibility of easing — negative deposit rates — was not carried out at the latest ECB policy meeting. Instead, the situation remains unchanged. However, ECB President Mario Draghi did announce in today’s press conference that policymakers still see downside risk to the eurozone economy.
Recent economic data from individual member states indicates a mixed picture, with some countries recovering and others struggling. It doesn’t help that Germany is seeing better data while France, the second-largest economy in the eurozone, continues to struggle.
With concerns about the speed of recovery for the eurozone as a whole, some analysts see the euro heading lower in the future, especially if the US dollar gains strength from a Federal Reserve taper. But, for now, the euro has the upper hand.
At 15:08 GMT EUR/USD is up to 1.3639 from the open at 1.3586. EUR/GBP is up to 0.8353 from the open at 0.8293. EUR/JPY is up to 139.1585 from the open at 138.9530.
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