Mission Driven
ECB President Christine Lagarde faced some polite but firm questions in the post 25bp interest rate cut presser yesterday afternoon. Given that Germany, France and Ireland which are all on the EU naughty step have the worst Eurozone economic performances and Eurozone inflation is 2.4% or 4% for services inflation versus GDP growth for 2024 of 1.1%, how does that square with the ECB promise to get inflation back into the sub 2% target area? That was just for starters and the steely eyed normally unflappable President was a bit wobbly in her answer resorting to grasping at the somewhat desperate straw of saying that she was confident about getting inflation down because she and her ECB colleagues were “mission driven.” So that’s all right then.
EUR/USD 1.0436.
Meteor Missiles
It were ever thus in the case of French arms deals: while France and Greece have been bound by a defence agreement since 2021 not to mention them both being members of the EU, France has been caught out selling Meteor missiles to Turkey which understandably Greece believes to be against both the spirit and the actualite of their agreement.
GBP/EUR 1.1945.