Two weeks ago, Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, and Axel Weber, president of the Bundesbank, held a private meeting with a group of economists to discuss the economic management of the eurozone - how to deal with divergent inflation and economic growth rates among member states. One of the economists present, on Wednesday May 25 at 5pm, was Joachim Fels, chief European economist of Morgan Stanley, who expressed concern about the long-term sustainability of the euro. Also there was Thomas Mayer, European economist of Deutsche Bank, who said the eurozone would face a period of stress.

That was four days before France held its referendum on the European Union's constitutional treaty. The day after the French voted, the first report surfaced that the meeting at the finance ministry in Berlin had taken place. Neither Mr Eichel nor Mr Weber is understood to have commented directly on the future of the euro. But the idea that they were in the same room as people who did caused agitation in foreign exchange markets, accompanied as it was by the rejection of the constitution by the electorates of France and then the Netherlands.