Yesterday the euro was down slightly compared to the U.S. dollar, 1.321 to 1.325 dollars compared to last Friday, particularly affected by the disturbing news growing on Spain.

The Spanish economy has again contracted by 0.3% in real terms in the first quarter 2012 compared to the last of 2011, according to the National Statistics Institute, which confirms the country’s entry into recession.

‘Once again the Spanish ulcer is felt,” commented a London based trader, which also highlights the anti-austerity of this weekend. “In addition, Standard & Poor’s downgraded eleven among the largest banks of Spain, in the wake of his decision last week on sovereign debt of the country”, he added.

For the record, the agency downgraded its sovereign rating two notches on Thursday night, from ‘A’ to ‘BBB +’, with an always negative stance. Commenting that providing a deterioration of the trajectory of deficits for the period 2011-2015, while stressing the increasing likelihood of assistance towards the country’s banking sector.

The single currency also depreciated against the backdrop of growing money supply in the euro area, the mass M3 rose by 3.2% yoy in March, against 2.8% in February. In addition, higher consumer prices have slowed a little less than expected in April, to 2.6%.