© Reuters. The euro remains around 1.0850 dollars
Frankfurt (Germany), Jan 24 (.).- The euro traded around the $1.0850 level on Tuesday, despite some data showing that private sector activity contracted in the US in January, while the inflation of the costs of inputs accelerates.
The euro was exchanged around 16:10 GMT at $1.0877, compared to $1.0861 in the last hours of European currency market trading the previous day.
The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference exchange rate for the euro at $1.0858.
On the part of the ECB, different opinions circulated again about the rises in interest rates.
The president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, insisted on Monday that they are going to raise interest rates more “significantly” at a sustained rate.
The Italian Fabio Panetta told the German newspaper “Handelsblatt” that the ECB should not commit to any monetary policy movement beyond February, and considered that they can lower inflation with well-calibrated and non-mechanical increases in interest rates.
The president of the Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank, Klaas Knot, and the governor of the National Bank of Slovakia, Peter Kazimir, already came out on Monday in favor of two new interest rate hikes of 50 basis points each in February. and in March.
But his Greek counterpart, Yannis Stournaras, considered that the increases should be more gradual due to the slowdown in economic growth.
Bank of Italy Governor Ignacio Visco also spoke in favor of a slower pace in raising interest rates.
Some of them are more optimistic after inflation has dropped for two consecutive months and others consider that this is not enough to slow down the rise in the price of money.
“The euro zone returns to growth territory in the first month of 2023 as sales price inflation rises,” according to S&P Global, but these figures had little impact on the currency market.
The single currency was exchanged in a fluctuation band between 1.0838 and 1.0896 dollars.
