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Forex - EUR/USD falls as E.U. rejects Greek deal

Published 02/10/2012, 12:34 PM
Updated 02/10/2012, 12:37 PM
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Investing.com - The euro fell against the dollar on Friday after E.U. officials said Greece failed to agree to tough austerity measures in exchange for assistance funding, throwing the fate of the European economy deeper into uncertainty.

In U.S. trading on Friday, EUR/USD hit 1.3186, down 0.76%, firming from a session low of 1.3156 and off from a high of 1.3291.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3029, Monday’s low, and resistance at 1.3320, Thursday’s high.

Hopes were high just a day ago, when Greek officials agreed to accept austerity measures needed to tap a EUR130 billion bailout package.
 
However, multilateral institutions arranging the bailout fund, including the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, found that Greece still failed to meet spending targets and rejected the country's appeal for aid.

Reports emerged that Greece’s version of an austerity plan would leave its debt around 136% of gross domestic product by 2020, which lenders deemed unacceptable.

"The Greek offer is not sufficient and they have to go away to come up with a revised plan," said Bertrand Benoit, a spokesman for the German Finance Ministry in Berlin, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile coalition support for austerity in Greece began to unravel on Friday, when members from a small, conservative political party voiced opposition to tough measures.

George Karatzaferis, who heads one of the three coalition parties supporting interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, said his organization would reject austerity.

"What has particularly bothered me is the humiliation of the country," said Karatzaferis, according to Bloomberg.

"Clearly Greece can’t and shouldn’t do without the European Union but it could do without the German boot."

The troika of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have given Greece days to meet its targets or miss out on EUR130 billion, money the country needs to avoid a messy default.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the country's trade deficit widened more than expected in December thanks to pricier oil but also due to increased demand for imported cars and other goods from abroad, although consumer confidence figures came in weaker than expected for January.

The euro, meanwhile, was down against both the pound and the yen, with EUR/GBP losing 0.27% to 0.8377 and EUR/JPY falling 0.84% at 102.32.

On Sunday, Japanese gorss domestic product figures are due out, while on Monday, French inflation figures will publish.

Markets will keep an eye on a German bond auction on Monday as well to gauge how immune Europe's largest economy is to the Greek debt crisis.





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