Russian former Minister of Finance predicts long-term decline for Euro

The negative data from EU makes ex-Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin believe European currency is doomed to a lengthy decline. He also thinks Greece will leave Eurozone.

“I think the Euro will be falling in the next year and a half as volatility will remain”, wrote Mr. Kudrin on Twitter.The former Minister is also pessimistic about the risk rate for Europe. He believes banks will lose funds and interest rates will escalate. Speculating on the Greek problem Kudrin tweeted “Greece will leave the Eurozone”.The Euro has been declining against Dollar during the last six months due to the debt problems in the weakest EU nations – Greece, Italy and Portugal. In May 2011 Euro was worth 1.5 Dollars, now the European currency has reached the level of 1.3 Dollars.The latest January macro-economic data on the labour market in Germany and Italy support the decline in the Euro rate. Unemployment in Germany has risen up to 7.3% adding 0.7 points. The numbers for Italy reached 8.9%, the highest since December 2004.In the last weeks of January the situation with the Euro has especially worsened, because creditors fail to agree on writing off a part of the Greek national debt.