BLBG:Euro Weakens For Third Day Against Dollar On Growth Concern
The euro declined for a third day against the dollar after economists surveyed by the European Central Bank predicted the region’s contraction this year will be worse than previously forecast.
Europe’s shared currency erased its gain versus the yen as the economists questioned by the ECB also cut their 2013 growth forecast to 0.6 percent from 1 percent. New Zealand’s dollar fell against all but one of its 16 major peers as a report showed the nation’s unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to a two-year high last quarter.
“The situation in Europe remains uncertain and the data has been weaker,” said Bernd Berg, a currency strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG’s private banking unit in Zurich. “The euro should go lower.”
The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.2337 at 10:03 a.m. London time. It was little changed against the yen at 96.89.
The so-called kiwi fell 0.4 percent to 81.25 U.S. cents, and declined 0.2 percent versus the yen to 63.81.
New Zealand’s jobless rate increased to 6.8 percent from 6.7 percent in the first quarter, Statistics New Zealand said in a report today in Wellington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey was 6.5 percent.
The yen swung between gains and losses against the dollar, trading between 0.2 percent higher and lower, after the Bank of Japan refrained from adding stimulus at a policy meeting today.
Japan’s currency was 0.1 percent lower at 78.52 per dollar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at lmnyanda@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net
