Investing.com - The euro pushed higher on Monday as European leaders prepared to hold last ditch talks on a deal to prevent Greece from defaulting after Athens submitted new proposals, breaking a deadlock with its creditors.
EUR/USD was up 0.38% to 1.1395, not far from last Thursday’s one-month highs of 1.1435.
Athens submitted a new package of economic reforms on Sunday night, indicating that it is prepared to make concessions to break a deadlock in order to unlock €7.2 billion in funds.
Greece’s existing bailout is set to expire at the end of this month, when it must also repay €1.6 billion to the International Monetary Fund.
A default by Greece could trigger the country’s exit from the euro zone.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was to hold talks with representatives from the IMF, the European Central Bank and the eurogroup of finance ministers later in the day, ahead of an emergency summit by European Union leaders.
If no deal is reached Greece could need to impose capital controls on Tuesday to stem a mounting crisis in the banking sector after bank withdrawals surpassed a billion euros a day late last week.
The euro gained ground against the yen and the Swiss franc, traditionally seen as safe-haven buys, with EUR/JPY up 0.42% to139.88 and EUR/CHF adding 0.33% to trade at 1.0449.
Elsewhere, the dollar moved higher against the yen, with USD/JPY rising 0.16% to 122.90.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.21% to 94.12.