Euro was choppy against the pound yesterday, after consumer confidence figures hit a six-year low in the Eurozone. Fears of continued economic disruption, as elsewhere, continue, with many expecting France’s lockdown to be extended. In Italy, the rate of coronavirus infections has started to slow.
This morning, German and French manufacturing figures have shrunk markedly, although it is was the markets have been expecting in the current situation. Nonetheless, it will not help to calm fears about the damage to the economy.
Senior ECB policymakers have continued to call on national governments to provide a cohesive response across the Eurozone to the coronavirus crisis. Carlos Costa, also Governor of the Bank of Portugal, said yesterday, ‘Failure to cooperate in this crisis would permanently scar the European project…Solutions must be found in order to avoid that the coronavirus emergency becomes a second sovereign debt crisis.’
