German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the euro is too low for Germany adding that Berlin had no power to address this ‘problem’ because monetary policy was set by the independent European Central Bank.
Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Merkel also said: “We have at the moment in the euro zone of course a problem with the value of the euro.”
“The ECB has a monetary policy that is not geared to Germany, rather it is tailored (to countries) from Portugal to Slovenia or Slovakia. If we still had the (German) D-Mark it would surely have a different value than the euro does at the moment. But this is an independent monetary policy over which I have no influence as German chancellor,” she noted.
The euro has fallen nearly 25 percent against the dollar over the past three years, touching a 14-year low of $1.034 in January. But it has since risen to roughly $1.061.
Merkel’s remarks came after a trade adviser to US President Donald Trump said in late January that the euro’s low valuation was giving Germany an edge over the US and its European Union partners.
Meanwhile, Trump himself had said earlier that the dollar’s strength against the Chinese yuan is killing the US.
