Finance ministers try to come up with a solution for the Euro crisis

Eurozone finance ministers continue to scratch their heads as they try to come up with a solution to the Euro crisis that would not involve asking German taxpayers to empty their pockets for a second time. German Chancellor Angela Merkel scotched two possible solutions yesterday when she vetoed the idea of an EU-wide government bond and denied there was any need to increase the size of the IMF's European Financial Stability Fund.

Her stance was at odds with the International Monetary Fund who believe a bigger fund is essential to hold the single currency together. The ministers meet again in Brussels today with 16 agendas and 16 very different financial resources...it should be an interesting meeting.

These issues however don't seem to have particularly affected the the Euro and nor did a fall in Eurozone investor confidence yesterday, falling from 14.0 to 9.7. In Australia the construction index (a sort of purchasing managers index (PMI)) dipped from 44 to 42.4 and the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged at 4.75%, as expected. The British Retail Consortium reported retail sales up by 0.7% in the year to December.

The total impact of all that on currencies was minimal. Any net move of more than half a cent would have been a big one for the day. For foreign currency dealers Sterling remained unchanged from yesterday morning against the US, Canadian and Australian dollars, fractionally higher against the New Zealand dollar and the Swiss franc and a touch lower against the yen. Compared with the euro, sterling is just half a cent stronger and its range for the day was scarcely more than that.

Today's list of statistics is hardly longer than yesterday's with UK industrial and manufacturing production, German factory orders and the Bank of Canada's interest rate decision.