The EURUSD is trading near session lows going into the press conference from ECB’s Legarde. The price is at 1.1738. The low price reached 1.1731. The high price for the day was reached in the Asian session near 1.1780.
Initial comments from Lagarde:
- in the first quarter, the economy grew more than expected
- survey data .point to overall modest expansion.
- Higher tariffs in stronger euro are expected to make it harder for firms to invest.
- Strong labor market, rising real incomes, solid private sector balance sheet support consumption.
- Defense and infrastructure investment should bolster growth
- Indicators of underlying inflation suggests inflation will stabilize at target.
- Labor costs have continued to moderate.
- There is slower growth in unit labor costs out by increase productivity and moderate labor costs
- short-term inflation expectations moderated. Longer term inflation expectations continue to stand around 2%.
- Risk to growth remain to the downside led by global trade tensions. Deterioration and financial markets sentiment could lead to greater risk aversion.. Geopolitical tensions could lead to major source of uncertainty.
- If geopolitical and trade tensions were lifted, it could spur economic activity.
- Outlook for inflation is more uncertain than usual .
- ECB is not pre-committing to a particular rate path
The EURUSD is trading near the lows for the day at 1.1731.
The Q&A begins at 9 AM ET
- ECB does not target exchange-rate. We monitor them.
- Exchange-rate matter for our inflation forecasts.
- Our baseline from June is currently holding
- We are in a good place because inflation is at 2%.
- Our projections point to inflation stabilizing at 2% target in the medium-term.
- We have seen growth developing in a relative favorable way.
This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.