Spoedoverleg Ministers van Financien Eurozone

[Karst de Jong]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Zeg,

Meer gepamfleteer door Dr. Fluks. Dus we doen mee:


Europe urged to welcome weak euro
Euros
A weak euro could make life easier for Europe's
exporters
The current weak euro is good news for Europe as it
helps its exporters, says the International Monetary
Fund (IMF).

The comments came from Michael Deppler, director of
the IMF's European department, as the euro remained
near eight-month lows against the dollar.

While the euro stayed at about the $1.23 level on
Tuesday, Mr Deppler said somewhere between $1.20 and
$1.30 was "about right" for the currency.

The euro has fallen amid political and economic
uncertainty in Europe.

'Uncertain outlook'

Mr Deppler added that he thought the eurozone's
current level of interest rates, 2%, was fine for the
moment, but it might be necessary to cut rates if
Europe's economy fails to pick up in the third quarter
of this year.

	
We will continue to look very carefully at all the
data that we will have, but I am not preparing for a
rate cut
ECB boss Jean-Claude Trichet

His comments echoed an earlier statement on the IMF's
website.

"Given the outlook for prices and the uncertain
situation, keeping [eurozone] interest rates on hold
is appropriate, but the need for a rate cut may be
materialising," the IMF said.

Mr Deppler also cautioned that the euro could rise if
and when the US sought to lower the value of the
dollar to aid the reduction of America's trade
deficit.

Euro pressures

The euro's recent weakness followed France and the
Netherlands' "No" votes on the European Constitution.

Monday's suggestion from Italian ministers that Italy
might abandon the euro also hit the single currency.

However, eurozone finance ministers were quick to
dismiss the idea, rejecting it as "absurd".

New French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said
the euro was "a plus for European economies".

The euro was further hit by hints from ECB chief
economist Otmar Issing that an interest rate cut was a
distinct possibility to help boost the sluggish
eurozone economies.

Yet this was quickly rejected by the ECB's president
Jean-Claude Trichet, who said the bank had no current
plans to cut eurozone interest rates from their
current 2%.

"We will continue to look very carefully at all the
data that we will have, but I am not preparing for a
rate cut," said Mr Trichet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4616241.stm


--- "Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks" <fluks at dds.nl> wrote:

> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> Zie:
>
>
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/06/07/eu.main/index.html?section=cnn_latest



		
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