The euro was worth less than 0.99 dollars on Monday, the European currency being heckled by uncertainties regarding the European economy following the announcement on Friday of the complete shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline by the Russian Gazprom.
The euro fell 0.71% to 0.9883 dollars on Monday around 05:45 GMT, its lowest since December 2002. Since the start of the year, the European currency has continued to weaken once morest the dollar.
The Russian giant Gazprom announced on Friday that the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was to resume service on Saturday following maintenance, will finally be “completely” stopped until the repair of a turbine in this vital pipeline for supplying Europeans.
The shutdown is considered, from a technical point of view, unjustified by the turbine manufacturer Siemens Energy.
After having come close to its historic record of 345 euros per megawatt hour on August 26, established in March at the start of the war in Ukraine, the price of European natural gas had fallen by more than a third in one week last week. It resumes trading Monday at 06:00 GMT.
In addition, European stock markets were expected to fall sharply at the opening, according to the first indications available.
/ATS
