Euro ended the day down against the pound, with optimism over the result of the upcoming UK election keeping the latter stronger. Eurozone consumer confidence figures came in just above expectations at -7.2 – still firmly in negative territory, but an improvement on the previous month.
The European Central Bank’s monetary policy notes showed the bank’s concern that the ‘pace of global activity and trade remain weak’, although it did note some ‘tentative’ evidence of a certain level of stabilisation of global growth. It also noted that exports had returned to previous levels, with the one-off spike being attributed to stockbuilding in the UK in the run-up to the original Brexit date.
Overall, the Governing Council noted that the environment is still largely risky, especially due to ‘rising protectionism, geopolitical factors and continued vulnerabilities in emerging markets’.
