Vigilance, Commitment and Perseverance
Those are the requirements from ECB President Christine Lagarde for Europe to win the fight against inflation. What is conspicuously missing is an indication of the likely timing for the next cut in EUR interest rates, but it will not be at the time of the next ECB meeting in July. So expect EUR to remain strong and EUR bonds to reflect that. 5 year German bonds yield 2.68% and 10 year 2.62%. Enough said.
EUR/USD 1.0800.
Japan’s Population Crisis
If a country’s population has twice as many deaths as births and is reducing by 2000 each and every day, it means that it has a problem. Marriage is also out of fashion in Japan and the Metropolitan Area of Tokyo is taking action by setting up an app to encourage people to sign up and have the chance to meet a potential partner. A salary slip and a detailed questionnaire must be provided to establish suitability. One thing the app is not is a dating site like Tinder, and the objective is to increase procreation rather than casual hook ups.
EUR/JPY 169.24.