The euro dropped on Friday after a batch of economic data coming from the euro area. Eurozone GDP missed expectations, rising just 0.3% in the third quarter.
EUR/USD was last seen at 1.0774, down 0.38%.
EUR/GBP dipped 0.32% to trade at 0.7081.
The weakness of the eurozone recovery adds “to the already strong case for the ECB to step up monetary stimulus in December,” says Nick Kounis, head of macro research at ABN Amro Bank. He added that while Europe’s domestic economy is quite robust, it
is suffering from weak world trade and worsening export markets.
Eurozone GDP has slowed to just 0.3% in the third quarter.
That’s a slowdown on the 0.4% logged three months earlier, showing that Europe’s recovery remains fragile despite the huge stimulus measures taken by the European Central Bank this year. It’s also weaker than expected, as economists had awaited 0.4% growth.
Portugal posted a disturbing zero growth, while the Greek economy shrank.
Statistics Portugal said that Portuguese GDP fell to 0.0%, from 1.5% in the preceding month. Analysts had expected Portuguese GDP to rise to 1.8% last month.
In Greece, Hellenic Statistical Authority reported that Greek GDP fell to -0.4%, from 1.1% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 1.6%. Analysts had expected Greek GDP to fall to -1.9% last month.
Cypriot GDP rose by 0.5% in July-to-September, matching the growth in April-June. That means Cyprus’s economy is now 2.2% larger than a year ago.
German and French GDPs both came in at 0.3%, matching expectations, while Italian GDP rose to 0.2% missing expectation of a 0.3% increase.
Hungarian economy expanded by 2.3% vs 2.5% forecast, while Czech GDP came in better than expected, at 0.5%.
Some nations also posted their CPIs today.
Consumer price inflation in Italy came in at 0.2%, as analysts expected, while Spanish CPI declined to 0.6% missing expectation of 0.7%.
