The Euro weakened against most of its most traded peers due to renewed concerns over the Eurozone debt crisis. News that Greece has been downgraded to an emerging economy and the closure of one of Greece’s major media outlets created renewed concern that the Euro crisis is making things worse in the country.
The negativity over the still dismal outlook for the Euro region remained despite the release of better-than expected industrial output data. According to Eurostat, factory production in the single currency bloc rose by 0.4% on a month by month basis. On a year by year basis production improved by showing a contraction of -0.6%, the previous figure had been -1.4%.
Industrial output in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, expanded 1.2 percent in April after a 1.8 percent increase a month earlier, today’s report showed. French output rebounded with 2.3 percent growth after a 0.6 percent contraction. Production in Italy and Spain decreased adding to the increasingly dismal picture for the southern economies.
Despite the improvement economists are largely ignoring the data and instead are focusing on the wider issues facing the region. Contraction remains in all of the Eurozones main industries with only Germany and one or two others are showing signs of growth, albeit limited growth.
The Euro pared some of its losses against the weakening US Dollar but made little headway against Sterling after the UK posted better-than-expected jobless claims data. The positive jobs data has increased the prospect that the UK economy is on track to make a recovery, a recovery that could leave the Euro using nations in its wake.
Current Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3286
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8480
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3934
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6674
The US Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.75171
The Pound Sterling /Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1774
The Australian Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7152
The New Zealand Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.5972
(Correct as of 11:10 am GMT)
