by Mark Sutcliffe

Euro on the slide

Since the euro's launch on the 1 January 1999 it has fallen by over 30 per cent against the dollar. On the 22 September 2000 the European Central Bank (ECB), supported by the central banks of Japan, the United States and Britain, intervened heavily in the foreign exchange market to prevent it sliding any further. At a cost of over $9 billion, the euro rose from 86 to 90 cents. After that, the euro began to slip again. By 9 October 2000 it had returned to its 86 cents value, following remarks by the German finance minister Hans Eichel that, without closer policy co-ordination between euro members, the euro could fail.

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Oil on the up

Given all the commotion over the recent rise in oil prices, you might be forgiven for thinking that we were on the verge of a global recession, as followed the large oil price rises in 1973/4. But this, in fact, is far from the truth. Oil, at about $38 a barrel, is more than three times its value at the end of 1998. However, the real price of crude oil today is still less than half its level in 1980.

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Other News in Brief

Innocent: the big supermarkets do not rip us off, and that's official

DIY demerger: the splitting of Kingfisher

Foreign investment and the UK – Europe's number one

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