Forex - Euro down in early Asia with Greece talks at impasse, kiwi up

Investing.com - The euro fell in early Asia on Friday as a further impasse in talks over Greece's debt obligations emerged, while the kiwi recovered despite falls in import and export price indexes.

EUR/USD changed hands at 1.1245, down 0.13%, after reports that talks between Greece and the IMF were on hold.

Officials from the International Monetary Fund on Thursday hastily ended negotiations with Greece in Brussels, amid a lack of progress.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said there are still key sticking points in the negotiations on pension, tax and financing considerations. IMF officials have a history of breaking off talks with Greece if they are dissatisfied with the direction of the negotiations.

"The IMF never leaves the table, the ball is very much in Greece's court," Rice said.

Greece prime minister Alexis Tsipras met with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker for roughly two hours on Thursday before members of the Greek bailout team left Brussels. Tsipras told reporters on Thursday afternoon that the two sides still remained far apart on a number of critical issues.

"We're working in order to bridge the remaining differences and especially the differences on fiscal and financial issues," Tsipras said. "We are working to assure an agreement which will ensure that Greece will recover with social cohesion and viable public debts."

On Wednesday German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had agreed to work "intensively" with the country’s creditors in order to avoid default at the end of the month.

Greece’s bailout agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund is set to expire at the end of this month and it cannot make further debt repayments without a new deal.

In New Zealand, the export price index fell 3.5% year-on-year in May, following a 6% drop the previous month. The import price index eased 14.6% in the same period, following a 17.1% decline in April.

NZD/USD traded at 0.7016, up 0.09%, a day after falling sharply on an unexpected 25 basis points rate cut to 3.25%. Elsewhere USD/JPY changed hands at 123.54, up 0.10%, while AUD/USD traded at 0.7754, down 0.01%.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.05% at 95.02.

Overnight, the dollar remained supported against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, after data showed that U.S. jobless claims rose slightly more than expected last week, while U.S. retail sales increased more than initially anticipated in May.