The common currency Euro slipped off the recently struck 2½ year peak versus the US Dollar on the outcome of today’s Eurozone inflation data. Despite today’s price, the Euro’s rise is largely due to the market’s increasing belief that the European Central Bank will gradually unwind their Quantitative Easing policy while at the same time the ECB’s counterparts in the US seem to be taking on a decidedly dovish stance. That can be evidenced from the latest meeting minutes of the Fed’s July policy meeting; in the minutes, some Fed members suggested that the proposed 2017 interest rate increases should be postponed until it became apparent that the softening inflationary trend was, indeed, fleeting and transitory.
As reported at 11:26 am (BST) in London, the EUR/USD was trading at $1.1705, down 0.57%; the pair had earlier hit a session peak of $1.17908 while the low for the trading session stands at $1.16945. The EUR/GBP is down 0.34% to trade at 0.9102 Pence; the pair has ranged from a low of 0.90838 Pence to a peak of 0.91365 Pence.
CPI Data Mixed
Earlier today, Eurostat released July’s inflation figures for the Eurozone. On the whole, the data come in as expected CPI for July at 1.3%, year-over-year, and -0.5%, month-over-month. Core CPI, year-over-year, was higher at 1.3% than the 1.2% forecast, while on a month-over-month basis, core CPI missed analysts’ forecasts of a decline to -0.5% by hitting -0.6%, well off June’s 0.2%. Core CPI strips out volatile components such as food and energy.