Euro hits 17-month low on French debt fears: reference rate vs live quote

The euro kept falling on Monday as worries about French government debt pushed investors toward the US dollar. The European Central Bank's EUR/USD reference rate for 5 October 2026 was 1.1204, down from 1.1225 on Friday, 2 October.

FXStreet reports that the Dollar Index hit an 18-month high. France's government owes close to 120% of its yearly economic output, and the gap between French and German 10-year borrowing costs reached about 1.5 percentage points on Friday, the widest since 2011. Investing.com called it a 17-month low for the euro. According to FXStreet, citing BBH's Elias Haddad, EUR/USD briefly touched 1.1161 during the day, its lowest since May 2025. Our sister site has more on the French fiscal story and the dollar.

Notice something: 1.1204 and 1.1161 are both "today's" EUR/USD price. That is today's lesson.

What is a reference rate vs a live quote?

A live quote is the price you see on a trading screen right now. In forex it changes many times a second, almost around the clock on weekdays.

A reference rate (also called a fixing) is one official price published once per business day. The ECB publishes euro reference rates against many currencies. It is a single snapshot. It is not a price you can trade at, and it does not show the day's highs or lows.

Businesses, accountants and statisticians use fixings because everyone agrees on one number. Traders use live quotes because they need the price at the moment they act.

A worked example

Fixing vs intraday low (EUR/USD). A pip is the fourth decimal place in most pairs, or 0.0001.

• ECB fixing: 1.1204
• Intraday low reported by FXStreet: 1.1161
• Difference: 1.1204 − 1.1161 = 0.0043, which is 43 pips

So the live market traded well below the official snapshot at some point in the day.

Daily change from fixings. 1.1204 − 1.1225 = −0.0021. Divide by 1.1225 and you get about −0.19%. Since the 29 September fixing of 1.1355, the euro has lost 1.1355 − 1.1204 = 0.0151, or 151 pips.

When the two tell different stories (GBP/USD). The ECB-based GBP/USD rate rose from 1.3201 to 1.3225, up 24 pips or 0.18%. Yet FXStreet reports that the pound fell over 0.19% on the day, trading at 1.3218 at the time of writing. Neither source is wrong. The fixing compares two daily snapshots. The live report compares the price later in the day with a different starting point.

A similar gap shows up in AUD/USD: the fixing was 0.6960, while FXStreet put the pair around 0.6970, up 0.34%.

You can compare these with a live EUR/USD chart or GBP/USD chart.

Why it matters for new traders

• Check the source. If one article says the pound rose and another says it fell, ask which price and which time each one uses.
• Fixings hide the swings. On a stressful day like this one, the live price can travel far from the official snapshot. A 43-pip gap is a real amount of risk.
• Your broker uses live quotes. Orders fill at live bid and ask prices, never at the ECB rate.
• Fixings are great for the big picture. They are consistent day to day, so they are useful for tracking trends like the euro's slide since late September.

Key terms

• Reference rate (fixing): one official exchange rate published per business day.
• Live quote: the current tradable price, updated constantly.
• Intraday low: the lowest live price reached during a trading day.
• Pip: 0.0001 in most currency pairs.
• Bond spread: the gap between two governments' borrowing costs, such as France vs Germany.