©Reuters. The euro exceeds 1.09 dollars, but falls again after the caution of Lagarde
Frankfurt (Germany), Apr 21 (.).- The euro rose this Thursday and exceeded 1.09 dollars after several members of the European Central Bank (ECB) were in favor of raising interest rates in July, but it lost this level due to the caution of its president, Christine Lagarde.
The euro was trading at $1.0845 around 3pm GMT, versus $1.0860 in late European forex trading the previous day.
The ECB fixed the exchange rate for the euro at 1.0887 dollars.
The vice-president of the ECB, Luis de Guindos, also sees a possible rise in interest rates in the euro zone in July.
“From today’s perspective, July is possible and September or later is also possible. We will look at the data and only then will we decide,” de Guindos said in an interview with Bloomberg.
The Governor of the National Bank of Belgium, Pierre Wunsch, had also been in favor of the increase in July, as did the Governor of the Bank of Latvia, Martins Kazaks, and the President of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, yesterday.
But President Lagarde was more cautious at the meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington and the euro fell to the level of 1.09 dollars, the highest for more than a week.
Lagarde said the ECB’s monetary policy will depend on economic data and its assessment of the outlook.
“In the current conditions of high uncertainty, we will maintain optionality, gradualism and flexibility in conducting monetary policy,” Lagarde said.
Inflation in the euro area increased in March to 7.4% year-on-year, which represents a growth of 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous month.
The rise in the yield on US Treasury debt is also helping to push the dollar higher.
The weekly number of claims for jobless aid in the United States fell to 184,000 last week, compared with 186,000 the previous week.
The single currency was traded in a trading band between 1.0824 and 1.0936.