Greek Debt Crisis Severely Limits EUR Demand, Pound Euro Exchange Rate Rises

Pound Sterling to Euro Demand Climbs at Crucial Moment in Brexit Process

On the eve of the Parliamentary recess, the House of Commons voted in approval of the Article 50 bill, which is required for the Government to trigger Article 50 itself and start the process of leaving the EU.

This occurred with a clear majority and also saw no amendments added to the bill, something that has raised serious concerns about the Government having a ‘blank cheque’ to go for ‘Hard Brexit’ should no satisfactory deal with the EU be reached.

The bill will now move onto the House of Lords on January 20th when recess ends, where peers are set to debate, potentially amend and approve the bill buy the end of the month.

While this news has raised concerns about how Brexit will turn out, greater difficulties in the Eurozone have allowed the Pound to rise notably against the Euro.

The next major UK data will consist of Friday morning’s trade balance for December, which previously showed a deficit figure of -4.17bn.

Euro Weakness Recorded as Greek Debt Crisis Sees No End in Sight

Although Germany posted a trade balance surplus for 2016 that beat 2015’s during the morning, the Euro has still flopped against the Pound due to mounting fears about how the Greek debt crisis could worsen.

These concerns were only exacerbated by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, who stated that the only way for Greece to clear its debt would be if it left the Eurozone, an economically suicidal move given how valueless the presumably revived Drachma would be.

While International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Gerry Rice has declared that the IMF does not want any more austerity from Greece, such sentiment is only likely to worsen Greek-German relations. Historically, Germany has been extremely stubborn about easing the pressure on the cash-strapped Greek Government, having lent significant sums to keep the nation afloat to begin with.

The last Eurozone news of the week will focus on French and Italian industrial production figures on Friday morning, which are both expected to show declines in December. Closing off the big announcements will be a speech in the morning from European Central Bank (ECB) official Yves Mersch.