Euro ended the day yesterday up against the pound, despite a shaky start after German factor orders came in much lower than the previous month – when the markets were expecting an increase. The single currency also benefitted from sterling’s weakness after France’s Finance Minister raised the prospect of the UK’s financial services’ access to EU markets being cut off after Brexit, unless they agree to regulatory alignment.
The ECB’s economic bulletin highlighted the Bank’s belief that its monetary policy measures will help it to ride out a global slowdown and noted that there are ‘signs of stabilisation’ even though the ‘economic outlook remains subdued’.
German Balance of Trade figures came in this morning, showing that the trade surplus widened to €15.2 billion in December 2019 from €14.1 billion in the same month the previous year, as exports rose 2.3% year-on-year.
