FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – The euro fluctuated around 1.10 US dollars on Thursday in fairly quiet trading. In the afternoon, the common currency cost $1.1007. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0978 (Wednesday: 1.0985) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9109 (0.9103) euros.
Economic data hardly moved the euro. The war in Ukraine did not weigh as heavily on corporate sentiment in the euro zone as measured by S&P Global in March, as experts had feared. In view of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the subdued mood among purchasing managers compared to the previous month is no surprise, wrote Christoph Swonke, economic analyst at DZ Bank. However, this survey also makes it clear that the supply chain problem has continued to worsen.
The ruble, meanwhile, retraced its interim gains against the dollar and euro. For the time being, he no longer benefited from the instructions given by Russian President Vladimir Putin the previous day that some countries such as Germany would soon only be able to deliver natural gas against payment in rubles. Putin’s move may be aimed at bolstering the tumbling ruble. This collapsed drastically because of the West’s sanctions against Russia. Analysts at Dekabank rated the move as making little economic sense. It may be an attempt to force the European Union to circumvent its own sanctions.
Meanwhile, the western community of states wants to demonstrate unity in the Ukraine war with several top meetings in Brussels. Exactly four weeks after the Russian attack on the neighboring country, the heads of state and government of the NATO countries met for a special summit. After that, there were also summit meetings of the Group of Seven important democratic industrialized countries (G7) and the European Union.
In addition, the Norwegian krone rose against many other major currencies. As expected, the country’s central bank had raised the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75 percent and indicated a further increase for June.
For other important currencies, the ECB set the reference rates for one euro at 0.83288 (0.83280) British pounds, 133.71 (132.65) Japanese yen and 1.0225 (1.0269) Swiss francs. An ounce of gold cost $1,961 in London that afternoon. That was around $18 more than the day before./la/jha/