EUR: Draghi says now is the time for political leaders to reform their economies

It was an extremely quiet day for eurozone economic data yesterday, although the euro still managed to make gains against sterling following confirmation that UK inflation continues to outpace wage growth. The single currency also managed to make some very small gains against the US dollar to buck a trend of recent weakening, albeit slightly.

There was a raft of speeches from various European Central Bank members, including President Mario Draghi, although some of the images I saw showed the room was half empty. Or half full. I guess it depends on which way you look at it. Regarding the way that Draghi sees the eurozone at the moment, he stated that political leaders have the opportunity to reform their economies, not least because of the record low interest rates and continuation of the quantitative easing programme.

Today sees no major data releases so any euro movement will likely be influenced from events outside of the eurozone, although today is the day that the Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont is supposed to clarify his position on whether or not he declared independence from Spain last week. Reports suggest he will ignore the ultimatum which might impact the euro.