German officials fear that it may not be turned on again. Now that critical piece of gas import infrastructure in Europe, has been shut down for scheduled maintenance due to last 10 days. At the same, Russia has throttled back gas supplies to some EU countries and recently cut the flow in the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany by 60%. The European Union, which received roughly 40% of its gas through Russian pipelines before the war, is attempting to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Fears of recession on the continent abound, stoked by high inflation and energy supply uncertainty caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The euro hovered around $1.004 on Monday afternoon, down about 12% since the start of the year. For the first time in 20 years, the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar is nearly the same – the two currencies are less than one cent away from parity.