This week may have seen the Eurozone drag itself out of the mire of its record long recession but the Euro itself spent much of the week weaker against the US Dollar and Pound Sterling as the US and UK economic recoveries picked up speed.
The week was a fairly volatile one for the EUR/GBP currency pair due to the plethora of data that was released. On Monday the Euro weakened against Sterling following the release of better-than-expected mortgage data from the UK.
The Euro found support in middle of the week after the latest German ZEW sentiment survey rebounded in August and sentiment across the Eurozone beat economist expectations. The data supported the possibility that the Eurozone is about to begin a recovery. Despite the improved data the single currency spent very little time higher against its peers as data out of the USA and UK saw the Dollar and Sterling make gains respectively.
On Wednesday the currency spent much of the day down against its major peers despite the news that the Eurozone finally exited its record long recession. The preliminary GDP data showed that the 17-nation currency blocs economy expanded by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2013. The figure beat economist expectations of growth at 0.2%. The return to growth was driven by a rebound in the German economy and the ending of a brief recession in France. Better-than-expected data out of the UK saw the single currency weaken against the Pound.
As the week drew to a close the Euro was set to make a weekly decline against its peers after it weakened for a fifth day against the Pound.
Major events next week for the Euro
22nd August – French Markit Manufacturing PMI
23rd August – Eurozone Markit Manufacturing PMI
Eurozone Services PMI
Eurozone Consumer Confidence
Euro Exchange Rates
(As of 11:30 am GMT)
The Euro is trading against the Pound in the region of 0.8526
The Euro is trading against the US Dollar in the region of 1.3342
The Euro is trading against the Australian Dollar in the region of 1.4554
The Euro is trading against the New Zealand Dollar in the region of 1.6526
The Euro is trading against the Canadian Dollar in the region of 1.3747
The Pound is trading against the Euro in the region of 1.1721
The US Dollar is trading against the Euro in the region of 0.7495
The Australian Dollar is trading against the Euro in the region of 0.6868
