Business confidence in Germany has improved by a better-than-expected rate in June, underlining ongoing robust recovery of Europe’s biggest economy.

Ifo, a widely watched business climate index, said Tuesday that its index for Germany rose to 106.8 in June from an upwardly revised 105.7 in May, beating expectations.

Economists polled by the AFX financial news wire had forecast the index to dip to 105.2.
The business assessment index, which measures current conditions, climbed to 109.4 from 107.3 in May. Economists were looking for a June reading of 107.5.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the past few days we have seen a bearish scenario develop slowly in the EUR/USD and GBP/USD pairs. The USD rallied mostly on Wednesday as both French and Germany’s economy ministry agreed that an ongoing rise in the euro could harm exports. French Finance Minister Thierry Breton even went further by saying that “everything” must be done to prevent the Euro from strengthening too much against the dollar which may include an intervention by European central bank (ECB) to move in to the market and weaken the single currency.
Read the rest of this entry »