Euro increases in value after ECB announcements

The single European currency surged in value on Thursday morning as traders were relieved by the decision of the local central bank to implement a new asset purchasing programme.

The European Central Bank held an emergency meeting on Wednesday at which it agreed that it would execute a programme of buying up assets which was worth around 750bn euros.

This was as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus, which continues to cause chaos in financial markets across the globe.

The new scheme will buy up assets both in the public sector and in the private sector, and it will carry on until the end of the year.

It will cover a wide variety of different assets under these umbrellas, including Greek debt.

This is a significant turnaround for the central bank, which had previously avoided buying up Greek debt in bond purchases due to the country’s poor credit rating.

As a result of this fresh announcement, the markets appeared to be reassured.

The single European currency was up by just over a quarter of a percentage point in its pair against the US dollar this morning (Thursday) as trading got underway.

It was seen at $1.0947 in this pair at one stage.

In its pair against the British pound, the single European currency was up by just over half a percentage point.

It reached 94.30 pence at one point.

It completed an across the board hat trick of gains against major currencies when it went up in its pair with the Japanese yen.

In this pair it was seen at 118.55, which was a rise of 0.47%.

However, there may still be some threats for the currency on the horizon.

The German economy is largely expected to take a hammering as a result of the virus.

According to the DIW Institute, which released its findings on Thursday, the economy – which is the biggest across the continent – could see a 0.1% drop in value.

One of the worst drops in the forex markets on Thursday, however, was the Norwegian crown.

This currency was down by 5.5% in its pair against the single European currency, which was a significant drop even in the coronavirus age.

It was spotted at 13.0167 at one stage in this pair, which reflected a terrible drop of over 30% compared to the end of 2019 when it was seen at 9.8379.

This was largely due to changes to the price of oil, which is one of Norway’s primary exports.

Overall, figures for Brent crude were down by 13% over Wednesday.

It has dropped by more than 50% overall since the month of March began.

This period includes the point at which another major oil-exporting nation, Saudi Arabia, decided to increase the amount of oil it churns out and sells.

The coronavirus pandemic is now being described by some outlets as the worst economic problem to hit the global economy since the Second World War – surpassing even the financial crisis of 2008.