The euro weakened after Moody’s Investors Service said France’s top credit rating is under pressure, adding to concern European leaders will find it difficult to resolve the region’s debt crisis. The 17-nation currency fell for a second day against the dollar and the yen as a slide in European stocks damped demand for the region’s assets. The yen and dollar strengthened versus most major counterparts as speculation Europe’s woes will slow global growth spurred investor appetite for safer assets. Asian currencies weakened, lead by the Malaysian ringgit and Philippine peso, after a Chinese report showed economic growth slowed to the least in two years. “Sovereign debt tensions in Europe are likely to remain high,” said Lee Hardman, a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London. “Hopes of an end to the sovereign debt crisis as soon as this weekend are unrealistic and that’s starting to weigh on the rebound that we saw last week in risk assets and the euro. We don’t think there’s an easy solution.” The euro fell 0.5 percent to $1.3675 at 9:55 a.m. London time, after sliding 1 percent yesterday. The currency weakened 0.4 percent to 105.12 yen, and depreciated 0.2 percent to 87.05 pence per pound. The yen was little changed at 76.85 per dollar. France’s Aaa credit rating is under threat from worsening debt metrics and the potential for additional liabilities from the region’s crisis, Moody’s said in a statement late yesterday. The nation’s financial strength has weakened because of the global financial crisis, making its debt measures the worst among its Aaa rated peers, Moody’s said. Spread Widens French 10-year government bonds underperformed benchmark German bunds, widening the difference in yield between the securities to a euro-era record 106 basis points, or 1.06 percentage points. German bunds rose as investors sought safety in the euro-region’s safest government debt. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said yesterday that “dreams” of an imminent resolution to the crisis aren’t likely to be fulfilled at an Oct. 23 summit of European leaders. The yen and the dollar both gained 0.6 percent today, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-nation currencies. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell for a second day, losing 0.7 percent. The Dollar Index, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc. uses to track the greenback against the currencies of six U.S. trading partners, climbed 0.3 percent to 77.418. ‘Years to Resolve’ “Europe’s problems are going to take years to resolve, one meeting is not going to fix it,” said Joseph Capurso, a currency strategist in Sydney at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s biggest lender. “Reality is setting in this week, and that’s going to see euro long positions being cut,” he said, referring to bets an asset will gain. The euro will likely decline toward $1.35 over the next two weeks, he said. The ringgit snapped a two-day gain after China said gross domestic product growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, after expanding 9.5 percent in the previous three months. The Malaysian currency declined 1 percent to 3.1380 per dollar, and the peso weakened 0.5 percent to 43.285. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Charlton in London at echarlton1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net NI ASIAX NI AUB NI EXE NI FED NI FINMIN NI FRA NI FRX NI GEECO NI GRECO NI ITALY NI JAPAN NI MMK NI SPAIN NI GER NI EUROPE NI US

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