Forex Pros – The U.S. dollar rose against most other major currencies on Wednesday, after revised data showed that Euro zone growth stalled in the last quarter of 2009 and amid new concerns over Greece's debt crisis. The greenback was up against the euro and pound, with EUR/USD shedding 0.34% to hit 1.3352 and GBP/USD dropping 0.7% to hit 1.5159. Earlier in the day, the European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said GDP growth in the euro zone was flat quarter-on-quarter in the October-December period, rather than the previous estimate of 0.1% expansion. Sterling was also hurt by economic data, after a purchasing managers' index showed weaker-than-forecast growth in British services sector activity in March. The dollar was also up against the yen, with USD/JPY climbing 0.18% to reach 93.94. Earlier Wednesday, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the sustainability of Japan's economic pickup was becoming clearer. Meanwhile, the greenback rose against its Australian, New Zealand and Swiss counterparts: AUD/USD slipped 0.29% to hit 0.9257, NZD/USD fell 0.22% to reach 0.705 and USD/CHF gained 0.36% to hit 1.0728. But the U.S. dollar fell against the loonie, with USD/CAD slipping 0.18% to hit 0.9998 as it struggled to break above parity. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.31%. Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, meanwhile, said Greece would upwardly revise its gaping 2009 budget deficit, the largest in the EU, to around 12.9% of gross domestic product from 12.7%.

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