The euro traded above $1.12 early Monday, with French public finances in focus as Germany prepared to publish business data and U.S. and eurozone central banks approached policy meetings.
FXStreet’s market snapshot put EUR/USD near $1.1220 at 9:26 p.m. ET Sunday (01:26 GMT Monday). Investing.com displayed 1.1221 on Oct. 26. The European Central Bank’s reference rate was $1.1193 per euro on Oct. 23, a separate daily benchmark. FXStreet said France’s political and fiscal risks might limit further gains in the common currency. EconoTimes previously covered French debt figures alongside the euro near $1.12.
France’s Interior Ministry counted 410,000 participants at 289 public actions on Oct. 24, including 110,000 in Paris. Its tally for the previous week was 550,000. The National Gendarmerie described the mobilization as a protest over the cost of living. The Associated Press reported that activists were seeking to revive the yellow vest movement, which emerged in 2018 amid protests over social injustice.
At the end of the second quarter of 2026, Eurostat put France’s general-government debt at 119.1% of gross domestic product. France’s statistics agency Insee reported 119.0% for the same period and put the debt stock at €3,595.5 billion, up €59.6 billion from the previous quarter. The sources do not explain the difference between the two ratios.
France’s Treasury Department, the Direction générale du Trésor, said the government raised its 2026 public-deficit target to 5.4% of GDP from 5.0%. The department cited conflict in the Middle East and summer climate events as reasons for the revision. The European Commission lists France under its Excessive Deficit Procedure. The Treasury has also cited successive crises and support measures, debt-service costs, defense spending and population aging as pressures on public finances.
The Ifo Institute’s German business-climate index is due Monday. The Federal Open Market Committee meets Oct. 27-28, and the ECB is scheduled to announce its policy decision Oct. 29 at 9:15 a.m. ET (13:15 UTC), followed by a news conference at 9:45 a.m. ET (13:45 UTC). The ECB’s deposit facility rate is 2.50%.
