Sarkozy and the EUR

From Simon Derrick

French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy says: "Competition is such with globalisation that we don't need to fight inflation like we fought inflation 30 years ago. I want the Europeans to be able to do with the EUR what the Americans do with the USD, the Japanese with the JPY and the Chinese with the CNY (i.e. use their powers to influence exchange rates). It's the very least." He adds: "We are depriving ourselves of an instrument to create growth, provide jobs, for purely ideological reasons. Well, the EUR doesn't belong to Trichet ... and I'm not the only one in Europe who thinks so."

Should make ECB job more difficult if EUR appreciates and core inflation rises to 2.0%.