Elections, ECB meetings, economic readings – it’s a busy day for the eurozone today. So far, sterling’s weakness is euro’s gain, as the single currency is up this morning against a pound weakened by worries over today’s elections, a potential change of Prime Minister and continued uncertainty over Brexit.
However, it’s looking just as bumpy for the euro, with concerns over rising Euroscepticism seeing more MEPs returned from parties like the French FN and Germany’s AfD. The EU’s Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici described the elections yesterday as ‘the most delicate and dangerous ever’. Although most Eurosceptic parties are not calling for an exit from the EU, they are calling for significant reform.
This morning, we saw German GDP growth come in as expected, at a small but positive 0.7% growth rate year on year. French manufacturing and composite PMI both came in above expectations, but German manufacturing did fall slightly below. However, this has not had a significant impact on the euro, with elections and the upcoming ECB notes the main topic. These are expected at 12:30, and we will also see a speech from the Bundesbank’s Wuermeling later this afternoon. Tomorrow morning will be largely free of releases, and most attention will be focused on election results due to be released on Sunday.
