FX round-up: Dollar falls against euro

Date: Monday 08 Mar 2010

The dollar fell against the euro but rose strongly against the yen on Friday as the Greek parliament gave the green light to austerity measures.

The proposals include an immediate pension freeze, wage cuts in the public sector and higher VAT. The cuts are expected to save €4.8bn annually and reduce Greece’s budget deficit to 8.7% of GDP.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, eased to 80.498 from 80.575 the previous session.

The euro rose to $1.3626 on Friday on hopes about a solution to Greece’s debt problems while the dollar jumped against the yen to 90.39 yen shortly after Friday’s much better than expected jobs data.

The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls fell by just 36,000 in February confounding expectations of a loss of around 90,000 jobs.

Sterling rose 0.8% at $1.51665 as a stronger than expected survey of the UK services sector soothed fears about a possible double-dip recession.

At the start of the week sterling plummeted to a 10-month low against the greenback on increasing unease about the UK's record deficit and the possibility of a hung parliament after May’s general election.

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