The Pound fell sharply against the Euro after it was weakened by increased concerns over the outcome of the upcoming May 7 general election and as domestic economic data came in worse than forecast. The Euro meanwhile advanced on hopes that a deal will be reached between Greece and its creditors.
Also supporting the single currency was a speech delivered by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. The president delivered a confident speech as he said that the Eurozone economy is improving and that the recently announced quantitative easing programme is having a positive impact on the region.
‘Growth is gaining momentum. The basis for the economic recovery in the Euro area has clearly strengthened. This is due to in particular the fall in oil prices, the gradual firming of external demand, easy financing conditions driven by our accommodative monetary policy, and the depreciation of the Euro,’ Draghi said in his speech. In a Q&A session that followed the speech, Draghi vehemently denied that the ECB is blackmailing Greece by not including the nation’s bonds in the QE programme.
A report released earlier in the session by the German central bank supported the single currency as it showed that the German economy (which is the Eurozone’s largest) is set to grow strongly over the coming quarters.
Concerns over Greece were eased as Greek leaders said that they will meet the requirements of the nations creditors when it delivers a more detailed reform programme this week. The report must be delivered by Friday and will need to convince creditors to release additional bailout funds. Greece is expected to run out of money by the start of April.
The Pound Sterling was weakened by fears that the upcoming general election will result in a stalemate, an event that could harm the UK’s economic recovery.
Also weakening the UK currency was a report published by the Confederation of British Industry, which showed that its index of industrial order expectations fell to zero this month from a reading of 10 in February. Analysts had expected the index to slip to 9 in March.
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