020 7898 0500German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with a group of school children in Berlin yesterday morning, telling them that the euro was ‘too weak’. In response, the single currency continued to push higher against the US dollar, reaching levels not seen since November 2016.
Brexit was high on the agenda of the Eurogroup meeting, although it was the Greece debt relief talks that stole the headlines. The Eurogroup stated that a decision will only be taken at the end of the bailout in mid-2018.
There is a flood of economic data set for release today. The German IFO survey hits the wires later, and is a leading indicator of economic health as it surveys about 7,000 businesses and asks them for their six-month expectations. In addition, we have a key data release in the form of the purchasing managers’ indices for both the service and manufacturing sectors.
