The euro has had a choppy start to the day against the pound, after a mixed bag of data releases yesterday. Despite efforts to introduce a bailout package, business confidence has continued to decline, reaching the lowest level since September 2009. Services sentiment also unexpectedly fell to almost double the forecasted low, although demand expectations showed optimism for the future.
Ursula von der Leyen put forward her proposal for a bailout programme to the European Parliament yesterday, consisting of €250 billion of loans and €500 billion of grants, with €82 billion earmarked for Italy and €77 billion for Spain. She argues that the proposal could lead to €3.1 trillion of investment into the Eurozone economy. However, nothing is yet certain, with Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden said to be opposed to the proposal, favouring instead loans over grants.
