Another European Central bank meeting, another rate rise. Unfortunately, the feeling remains that the authorities lacked the bottle to raise rates the full half percentage point and put a firm brake on resurgent inflation and not that they acted from a conscious belief that a quarter point increase was the correct path to take.

Every passing month sees backing grow for the argument that Europe has yet to adapt its one-policy-fits-all approach to the realities of a disparate group of states.

It's natural then that the euro is finding it difficult to put a stop to its dithering in such a climate of uncertainty.

Dominic Coyle is at dcoyle@irish-times.ie