Eurozone finance ministers welcomed the weakening of the euro against the dollar during a meeting in Brussels. Nevertheless, the head of the economic department of France Cristina Lagarde said that the euro exchange rate is still overvalued by 15-20%. Colleagues agreed with her.
The crisis in the US mortgage market that erupted in August last year forced the US central bank to start lowering dollar rates. Since rates do not fall in the euro zone, the euro / dollar appreciated sharply. On April 22, the euro hit a historic milestone of $ 1.60, but then a pullback began. Today for the euro give 1,545 dollars.
Another hot topic of discussion in Brussels was the bonuses of top managers of European corporations – unacceptably high, according to summit chairman Jean-Claude Juncker:
“An excessive increase in compensation received by company executives can be observed in many sectors of the economy of different countries of the euro area. In our opinion, the size of payments is simply shocking, and we continue to study the issue of how to fight against these unacceptable excesses using fiscal and ethical measures . “
In most EU countries, a “golden parachute” – payments to top managers when leaving the company or merging firms – are not taxed. The Netherlands decided to change this practice from next year.
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