Euro has been see-sawing a bit today on low volume, and as the end of the month approaches. However, the 17-nation currency is getting some help from the latest economic data. Jobless claims are down and inflation is up, and that has some hoping that the ECB won’t resort to negative deposit rates.
The latest economic data out of the eurozone indicates that the 17-nation currency region continues to improve — albeit at a slow pace. Eurostat reports that inflation is at 0.9 per cent, which was a little higher than expected. On top of that, instead of remaining steady, the unemployment rate ticked lower to 12.1 per cent.
These numbers still indicate that recovery in the eurozone is quite slow. However, improvements are being made, and there are hopes that, perhaps, the ECB won’t resort to cutting its benchmark to the point that there are negative deposit rates. The interest rate is already at a 0.25 per cent low, and there are hopes that things can improve without weakening the euro further.
Even with the improvements, though, there are some hurdles to overcome, and the risk of deflation remains.
At 15:53 GMT EUR/USD is up to 1.3611 from the open at 1.3605. EUR/GBP is down to 0.8319 from the open at 0.8324. EUR/JPY is up to 139.3140 from the open at 139.1215.
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