G8 Meeting This Weekend: Will There Be Any Real Impact on Currencies?

This weekend, Italy is hosting a G8 meeting. The meeting starts today and lasts until tomorrow evening. The rapidly rising price of oil is likely to be a point of discussion, as is the state of the global economy. Overall, the tone of the G8 meeting is expected to be upbeat and congratulatory, since many countries' economies are finally improving. Prognostications for an impending end to the recession are expected.

Europe, though, may not get off so easy. There are concerns about the euro zone economy, as well as the results of stress tested European banks. GFT's Boris Schlossberg reports in FX360 on some of the issues surrounding euro zone banks:

One of other key point of interest may be the discussion of stress tests of European banks which have so far provided little transparency to investors. European banks have massive exposure to the East European market and often operate at higher leverage than their US counterparts.

Clearly, there is still some risk to the downside, and that may hinder the recovery of the euro zone economy.