The euro extended its decline today as the fundamental data suggested the economy of the European Union worsened, spurring the speculation that the problems of the EU are too big to be resolved in the near future.
The retail sales in Germany, one of the major European economies, rose 0.4 percent in September (seasonally adjusted), as Destatis reported, following the drop by 2.7 percent in August. That wasn’t a bad result, but economists hoped for a 1.1 percent increase. The unemployment rate in Italy, one of the indebted nations that cause concerns among investors, unexpectedly climbed to 8.3 percent in September from 8.0 percent in the month before, according to the report of Istat. Eurostat reported that the unemployment rate in the Eurozone climbed to 10.2 percent in September from 10.1 percent in the preceding month. Traders hoped a drop of the unemployment to 10.0 percent.
The euro extended its yesterday’s drop against the dollar. The European currency was flat today versus the franc, but managed to fall against the Swiss currency yesterday even despite the ceiling imposed by the Swiss central bank. The euro even dropped against the yen even after yesterday’s intervention of Japan (though on the yesterday’s session the shared 17-nation currency was rising against the yen, like other currencies).
EUR/USD dropped to 1.3751 from 1.3858 today as of 6:27 GMT. EUR/JPY fell from 108.36 to 107.45, following the jump to the intraday high of 109.24. EUR/CHF traded near its opening of 1.2147 after it fell from 1.2200 to 1.2146 yesterday.
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