The threat of recession in Europe due to a lack of gas supplies from Russia sent the euro plummeting on Monday. The common currency fell 0.7 percent to $ 0.9879, its lowest level in almost 20 years. The euro has been burdened for some time by the uncertain supply of natural gas.
The Turkish lira also lost value. Here, the increase in inflation in Turkey to a good 80 percent again triggered sales of the national currency. In turn, the dollar rose 0.3 percent to 18.233 lira, just below its recent record high. Because of the pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the Turkish central bank, further interest rate cuts are to be expected in the coming months, says economist Liam Peach from the research house Capital Economics. Therefore, the lira has probably not yet reached its lowest level.
Russia’s temporary suspension of deliveries via the important Nord Stream 1 pipeline caused the European gas price to skyrocket. At its peak, the price of the TTF futures contract for Dutch natural gas was EUR 284 per megawatt hour, around 35 percent more than the previous day. In the end, the listing fell back to 246 euros.
There were also price increases on the oil market after the major oil nations in the Opec Plus group want to slightly lower their production target again. This reverses the recent expansion in production by Saudi Arabian-Russian dominated Opec Plus. A barrel of European Brent oil from the North Sea rose 2.7 percent to $95.50. The price premiums followed what were in some cases significant reductions in the past week. The main reasons for this are the gloomy economic prospects and the correspondingly weak expected demand for oil, petrol and diesel.