The single European currency has reached its lowest level since the year of its registration.
Le Monde with AFP
leaded by the energy crisis which threatens to plunge Europe into the recession, the euro sank, Monday August 22, under the threshold of parity with the dollar, at a level that had not been seen Since the year of its circulation.
The greenback, for its part, taking advantage of successive screws from the American Federal Reserve (Fed), the euro lost 0.96 % around 5:30 p.m. (Paris time), at 0.9941 dollars, A lower since 2002. The single currency had already descended for the first time under parity in mid-July.
The vigor of the dollar makes imports more expensive, especially for raw materials such as oil, whose course is set in dollars, accentuating an inflation already devastating for consumers and businesses.
fear a gas shortage
The announced closure, for maintenance, of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which provides most of the Russian gas to Europe, between August 31 and September 2, further accentuated the fears of shortage on the old continent and makes natural gas courses take off in Europe. As a result, the European gas course (Dutch TTF’s long -term contract) soared on Monday, on Monday, 295 euros per megawatt hour, approaching historical records affected in the first days of the invasion of Ukraine by Ukraine by Ukraine by Ukraine Russia.
And the week could be painful for the euro. For the moment, in 2022, the currency had recovered after flirting with the parity threshold, but “poor PMI indicators [Purchasing Managers Index, the purchase directors’ index] may be enough to anchor the ‘Euro under 1 dollar, “Kit Juckes, analyst at Société Générale, told AFP. Because, on the other side of the Atlantic, despite a slight weakening of American inflation in July, the American Federal Reserve (Fed) ensures that it will continue to tighten its monetary policy.
The United Kingdom also taken in the crisis
While the American economy is less affected than Europe by the war in Ukraine, the Fed has more room for maneuver to act than the central banks of the old continent. Thus, the pound sterling has also returned to its lower 2022. “It’s a dirty year for the pound, which is even folded against the euro, while the Bank of England rose its rates to each meeting [Since the end of 2021], “recall analysts of Ofx.
Despite these increases, British inflation exceeds 10 % over a year and is the highest among the countries of the G7, due to the war in Ukraine, the consequences of the pandemic, but also of Brexit, which tightens the Labor market and even more disrupts supply chains in the United Kingdom.
At 1.1764 dollars for 1 book, the British motto has been at its lowest since the beginning of 2020 and the first months of the pandemic. Before that, the pound sterling was not ironed under $ 1.18 since 1985.