In the meantime, most European governments have become more sensitive in their public statements with respect to the external value of the euro. Awareness has grown, as one finance minister recently put it, that “we are all sitting in one boat”.
A lot has been said and written about the underlying factors that may have caused the euro’s initial depreciation, which should not be over-dramatised. Often cited were the cyclical divergences between the European and the US economies, with a continuing boom over there and a temporary weakening of activity here.