Euro slips on debt crisis worries

Another round of strong US economic data — including growth in the labour market — lifted the US dollar against the euro on Friday with the single European currency under pressure due to fears that the region’s debt crisis will hurt the global economy

As well as having been at 16-month lows against the dollar and the pound it was at the weakest in 11 years against the Japanese yen.

Analyst Robert Halver with Baader Bank in Frankfurt said: “We are still in the midst of the crisis of European debts, definitely. We have the same problems we had in 2011 and I guess this year policy should do its homework and the ECB is still the master of creating solutions.”

Downbeat data on eurozone retail sales and economic sentiment at the end of last year has reinforced the idea that the region is heading into recession.

The euro will remain under pressure ahead of Italian and Spanish government bond sales next week — the year’s first big fundraising tests for struggling eurozone countries.

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