05:53 AM EDT, 08/28/2025 (MT Newswires) -- At the weekend, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde gave a reasonably upbeat interview to Fox News, noted ING.

Lagarde said consumers and businesses were resilient and that, whilst growth was not particularly strong, the signs were optimistic, wrote the bank in a note.

Those comments are a reminder that European unemployment is low and that the consumer savings ratio is relatively high, stated ING.

As a consequence, welcome news comes on Thursday in the July European Union car sales data. Growth for the EU was 7.4% year over year and 5.8% for the eurozone. The biggest spender on cars is the German consumer, where sales grew 11% year over year. On Thursday, there is also eurozone consumer confidence data.

Also on the agenda is the release of the European Central Bank minutes from the July meeting. That meeting saw a 5bps jump in short-dated euro (EUR) swap rates, but limited fallout on EUR/USD at the time, pointed out ING. Since then, short-dated EUR rates have moved another 10bps higher -- and probably don't need to move too much more on Thursday's minutes.

The euro is also facing a little baggage from French politics, added the bank. However, ING thinks the US dollar (USD) trend will dominate here and EUR/USD should find support under 1.1600 into September.

EUR/CHF is also making life very uncomfortable for the Swiss central bank (SNB), but it will probably manage to find some way to keep it supported below 0.93, according to ING.