Dollar’s Dominance Sets Limits to EU’s Policy Ambitions

(Bloomberg) -- Even though the European Union is the world’s second biggest economic power, it has to pay in dollars for most of what it buys. The bloc invoiced 56% of its total imports in the greenback last year, according to Eurostat. The dollar’s dominance is increasingly seen as a problem in Brussels, as it limits the bloc’s room to achieve foreign policy objectives, while it also complicates the transmission of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy across euro-area financial markets.

--With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, ;Sheldon Reback at sreback@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss

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