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EUR: All eyes on Germany as ISIS attack overwhelms positive data

By Smart Currency December 23rd, 2016

This week started positively, with the respected Ifo Business Climate index for Germany coming out better than expected, supported by the words of the German Central Bank’s president. As the week wore on, things began to slow down on the approach to Christmas. Germany released Producer Price Indices (PPI) on Tuesday, when we also saw European current account data.

These low-impact data releases had little effect, but the middle of the week was dominated by larger scale events, namely the horrific terrorist attack on a German Christmas market, plus the seeming resolution of the Italian banking crisis. Monte dei Paschi di Sienna now seems likely to be nationalised after a private-investor-backed deal fell through. This led to a slight strengthening in the euro (EUR), but the currency has not reversed much of its recent fall against the US dollar.

Today sees only GfK’s German Consumer Confidence Index and French consumer spending, as we slow down for Christmas.