The euro ended the last trading day of this week higher against the US dollar, but lower versus the Japanese yen and the Great Britain pound as market participants speculated whether the European Central Bank will cut interest rates next week.
German import prices slipped 0.1 percent in March from February when they increased 0.3 percent. Analysts have expected no change. The ECB policy decision next week is the major theme of discussions among Forex traders. Lower borrowing costs may be helpful to indebted economies, while Germany would benefit from higher rates, putting the central bank in a tough position to decide what course it should take.
The euro was a bit soft amid uncertainty and unfavorable macroeconomic indicators, yet managed to gain on the dollar, which was weakened by worse-than-expected GDP figure. The shared 17-nation currency lost against the yen, which was bolstered by absence of additional monetary easing from the Bank of Japan.
EUR/USD advanced from 1.3009 to close at 1.3032. Meanwhile, EUR/JPY dropped from 129.11 and EUR/GBP ticked down from 0.8428 to 0.8415.
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