(Bloomberg) -- Mario Draghi weighed in on the euro's recent surge on Thursday, warning that it was an unwelcome source of uncertainty for the economy.
“The recent volatility in the exchange rate represents a source of uncertainty which requires monitoring with regard to its possible implications for the medium-term outlook for price stability.”
Despite all this concern, the ECB president wasn't completely sure what the euro was worth at that moment.
“The exchange rate -- I don't know how much it's trading,” he said in response to a question at his regular press conference in Frankfurt. But after a prompting from his communications chief, he said: “Now I'm told it's 1.20, well OK.”
But it doesn't matter because, as Draghi added with a smile, “I don't comment about levels of exchange rates anyway.”
The currency has been on a tear recently: in the past three months, it's up almost 6 percent versus the pound and 7 percent against the dollar. It broke through $1.20 as Draghi spoke, nearing it's highest since the start of 2015.
Draghi also blamed the currency for the ECB's downgrade of inflation projections and said it had “unquestionably” tightened financial conditions. But he repeated that it wasn't a policy target, merely important for growth and inflation.
The latest forecasts, which included a cut to the 2018 and 2019 inflation outlook, were based on a euro exchange rate of $1.13 this year, and $1.18 next year and 2019.
To contact the reporter on this story: Fergal O'Brien in London at fobrien@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Jana Randow at jrandow@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint
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