The euro rose this week for the first time in seven weeks after bets that the 17-nation currency would weaken reached a record and as member nations’ borrowing costs fell at bond auctions, mitigating debt-crisis pessimism.
“The development with European borrowing costs, how they continued their descent, that took some pressure off the single currency,” said Joe Manimbo, a market analyst in Washington at Travelex Global Business Payments, a currency-exchange network. “Talk that the IMF is considering a bigger lending facility to help protect the global economy helped fan risk appetite.”
The euro rose 2 percent to US$1.2931, the biggest weekly gain since Oct. 14. It reached US$1.2986 on Friday, the highest level since Jan. 4. The common currency appreciated 2.1 percent to ￥99.62, after reaching an 11-year low of ￥97.04 Jan. 16. The US dollar was little changed against the yen at ￥77.01.
The Dollar Index, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc uses to track the greenback against the currencies of six major US trading partners, fell 1.6 percent to 80.157. It touched 79.999, its lowest level since Jan. 4.
Sweden’s krona added 3 percent to 6.7826 per US dollar.
The pound posted its biggest weekly decline against the euro in almost three months.
The pound weakened 0.5 percent to ￡0.8321 per euro on Friday, the biggest weekly drop since Oct. 28. It gained 1.5 percent to ￥119.60 on Friday, snapping a three-week slide. It gained 1.4 percent against the greenback to US$1.5538.
The Swiss franc fell against the US dollar, weakening 0.4 percent to SF0.9357 at 9:43am London time on Friday.
The currency gained 0.1 percent to 1.2077 per euro.
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