Further Euro Chaos

Yesterday’s news was dominated by further developments in the Eurozone, with various releases showing that any hopes of a recovery in the short term are very farfetched.

The Spanish were forced to pay the second highest yield on short term debt since the Euro was established, which is just a continuation of the rising rates of the last few weeks, but critically they are now having to accept 7%+ repayment terms. They did manage to sell all the bonds they intended to, but at these rates the market’s are very uncertain as to the sustainability of this level of borrowing.

Further fears were also cast on Greece’s future in the Eurozone, with inspectors due to visit Athens from the EU, ECB and IMF. EU officials have said that the inspection is likely to conclude that Greece cannot keep to the terms of its bailout, with fears that if Greece did have to exit the Euro then the hit of almost €200 billion that the Eurozone would have to take, would almost certainly push Spain over the edge, and possibly Italy too.

On top of this, the ratings agency Moody’s decided to lower its outlook for Germany, Holland and Luxembourg from stable to negative, and warned that the ratings of the triple-A European countries could come under threat if Greece were to leave the Euro, and that support for Spain and Italy needs to be increased.

So all in all a very gloomy outlook for the Euro, but is the UK in a much better position? We are still in the grip of recession and cannot ignore the ramifications of the Eurozone crisis on our own economy. While Ed Balls often points the finger at the government, accusing them of causing the recession, the effect on our imports and exports and overall economy from the Eurozone problems cannot be ignored. This morning’s GDP data release will provide a clue as to whether growth is starting to improve, but with the consensus amongst investors being a minor improvement from -0.3% to -0.2%, the markets are unlikely to be overwhelmed with excitement.

In these unprecedented times, make sure you stay in close contact with your CI account manager, to keep abreast of what is happening and to discuss options such as forward contracts and limit orders, which in a volatile market can save a fortune on an upcoming currency requirement.