© Reuters. The euro is exchanged above 1.04 dollars after the ECB minutes
Frankfurt (Germany), Nov 24 (.).- The euro has remained above $1.04 this Thursday, after the publication of the minutes of the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the improvement in business confidence in Germany.
The euro was trading around 4:00 p.m. GMT at $1.0418, compared with $1.0370 in the final hours of European currency market trading the previous day.
The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference exchange rate for the euro at $1.0413.
The minutes of the ECB meeting on October 26 and 27 had little impact on exchange rates.
The minutes show that a very large majority of Governing Council members supported raising interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, despite also forecasting a technical recession for the economy, and that “a few members expressed a preference for increasing ECB interest rates by 50 basis points”.
Business confidence improved in November in Germany as business pessimism for the next six months eased, so the recession may be less severe than many expected.
Earlier, the euro appreciated to $1.0450 after the Federal Reserve (Fed) hinted at a smaller interest rate hike in December and as US economic activity contracted in November.
The minutes of the last monetary policy meeting of the Fed show that most of its members consider it appropriate to reduce the pace of interest rate hikes soon, so the increase in December could be 50 basis points.
Also, many participants commented that there was great uncertainty about the final level of interest rates and that this limit will depend on the next economic data, although it will probably be “somewhat higher than they had previously expected.”
The dollar depreciated at times to its lowest level since August against the euro.
The single currency was exchanged in a fluctuation band between 1.0383 and 1.0447 dollars.