Euro is struggling today, and is mostly lower against many of its counterparts. This is largely due to the latest round of data released by European Union leaders. With the unemployment rate still high, the current worry is stagnation, even with better manufacturing data.
The latest release of unemployment data for the eurozone shows that the jobless rate is still high, at 11.8 per cent for March. This is near the high of 12 per cent, reached last year. This news came as Markit Economics released its PMI report showing an increase to 53.4 from 53 in April.
Even though it appears that there is expansion in the manufacturing sector, jobs haven’t kept pace. Earlier, ECB President Mario Draghi expressed his concern for stagnation due to the high unemployment rate.
The euro’s performance today reflects the worries about the situation. There is speculation that the ECB will have to take steps to further loosen monetary policy, and that is weighing on the euro, especially when one compares the news out of the eurozone with the news from the United Kingdom or United States.
At 13:42 GMT EUR/USD is down to 1.3812 from the open at 1.3870. EUR/GBP is down to 0.8207 from the open at 0.8210. EUR/JPY is up to 142.0625 from the open at 141.9160. EUR/CAD is down to 1.5175 from the open at 1.5195.
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