What it is
The shared currency of the European Union member states that have adopted it, together called the euro area. One central bank sets one monetary policy for all of them, while each government keeps its own budget.
Who issues it
The European Central Bank in Frankfurt and the national central banks of the euro area countries form the Eurosystem, which issues the euro. Policy is set by the ECB’s Governing Council.
How it is commonly described
- Reserve currency
- Held in quantity by central banks and governments as part of their foreign reserves.
The euro is widely held in official reserves and widely used to invoice trade and issue debt, particularly in and around Europe.
These are descriptions people use, drawn from how the currency has commonly behaved. They are not promises about how it will behave.
What typically moves it
- European Central Bank policy, and how it compares with policy in the United States
- Inflation and growth across the euro area, with most attention on its larger economies
- The gap between the bond yields of different member governments, read as a measure of strain inside the union
- The cost of imported energy, on which much of the area depends
- Risk appetite and the general direction of the US dollar
These are the things people who follow this currency usually watch. They explain how the market works; they do not say what the exchange rate will do next.
The scheduled releases to know
- Governing Council monetary policy decisionPublished by European Central BankExplainer: Rates
- Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, including the flash estimatePublished by EurostatExplainer: CPI
- Gross Domestic ProductPublished by EurostatExplainer: GDP
- UnemploymentPublished by EurostatExplainer: Jobless rate
- Purchasing managers’ surveys for the euro area and its membersPublished by S&P GlobalExplainer: PMI
- Ifo Business Climate Index for GermanyPublished by ifo InstituteExplainer: ZEW / ifo
No dates or figures are shown here: each publisher’s own calendar is the authority. The explainers are in Economic Events; a release without a link has no explainer on this site yet.
Its main session
London. The euro is busiest in European hours, from the Frankfurt and London mornings through the overlap with New York. Euro-area data are published in the European morning.
At GIO4X
GIO4X lists 3 currency pairs that contain the Euro. Each pair’s contract and published conditions are on its instrument page, where they are labelled as indicative. They are not repeated here.
Other GIO4X instruments whose pages name EUR:
A short history
The euro was introduced on 1 January 1999 as an accounting currency for eleven member states, whose national currencies were fixed to it. Notes and coins followed on 1 January 2002 and replaced, among others, the Deutsche Mark, the French franc and the Italian lira. More countries have adopted it since.
Words worth knowing
A reference page. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. It gives no exchange rate, no interest rate and no forecast.