Investing.com - The euro struggled near eleven-and-a-half year lows against the dollar on Monday as talks on proposed Greek economic reforms got underway in Brussels, while expectations for higher interest rates continued to underpin the greenback.
EUR/USD was last at 1.0854, off session highs of 1.0906 and not far from overnight lows of 1.0823, the weakest since September 2003.
The single currency remained under pressure as the eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers prepared to hold talks to discuss a reform package put forward by Greece as part of its bailout review.
Last month Athens reached a temporary agreement with its lenders to extend its bailout by four months, but the reform package must be signed off by creditors before it can access further financial aid.
Ahead of the talks eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned that Greece must stop wasting time and start developing its reform package.
Also Monday, the European Central Bank confirmed that it started asset purchases under its quantitative easing program.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned after Friday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. employment report solidified expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates around the middle of this year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last at 97.63, not far from Friday’s more than eleven-year peaks of 97.84.
Elsewhere, the euro pushed higher against the yen, with EUR/JPY advancing 0.29% to 131.34, but fell to fresh seven-year lows against sterling, with EUR/GBP down 0.40% to 0.7183.