For euro-followers--new low

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http://www.ft.com/hippocampus/q12bf82.htm

From the Financial Times (London)

Euro at new low against dollar and pound, by Nicholas Leonard

The euro dipped again on Tuesday morning in Europe to new lows against both the dollar and the pound. The renewed decline followed growing worries about the way in which the German government is very publicly applying pressure on the European Central Bank to ease interest rates in order to reduce unemployment. Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister, will be attending the Bank's council meeting on Thursday February 18th.

The dollar and the pound wree helped against the euro by other important developments. The dollar was lifted against the yen to its best for almost ten weeks after the government in Tokyo said it would buy its own bonds through the Ministry of Finance and reduce the flow of ten-year issues.

Both Masaru Hyami, the governor of the Bank of Japan, and Eisuke Sakakibara, the influential vice-finance minister, said they supported a weaker end to help exports as a way of stimulating the economy. Japan is expected to explain the case for a fall in the yen at the Group of Seven meeting this weekend.

The pound was helped a little higher against the dollar by the inflation data for January. The year-on-year headline rate was in line with expectations at 2.4 per cent but RPI-X, the figure excluding interest rate changes, was a fraction higher than forecast at 2.6 per cent. The official target is 2.5 per cent. The data raised a minor query over whether the Bank of England would cut base rate again in March.

[SNIP]

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 16, 1999

Answers

Currency deteriorations are bad news.

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 20, 1999.

Oskar Lafontaine - sounds like a movie star. And "Mr. Yen" sounds like a Bond villain.

-- humpty (no.6@thevillage.com), March 21, 1999.

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