The euro advanced against the dollar and yen before euro-area finance chiefs hold a conference call to discuss ways to keep Greece in the shared currency. The 17-nation euro strengthened 0.3 percent to $1.2997 at 9:04 a.m. London time. It rose 0.5 percent to 103.72 yen. The Japanese currency weakened against the greenback, falling 0.2 percent to 79.80. The jobless rate in the euro area climbed to an all-time high of 11.5 percent in September, according to the median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the European Union’s statistics office releases the data today. The Swiss franc rose 0.3 percent versus the dollar to 92.93 centimes. It was little changed at 1.20798 per euro. To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

Source