The European currency went up versus the greenback for the sixth time during the past week due to the expectations that the European policy makers will take steps to stem debt crisis in the region.

Yesterday euro-area finance ministers pledged to strengthen the euro area’s safety net but made no firm decision about possible additional crisis measures. The attention is now focused on the Ecofin meeting of European Union finance ministers due to be held later today.

Economists at Bank of New York Mellon called euro zone’s crisis-management policies reasonably effective. In their view, the relatively healthy Spanish bond sale indicates that the confidence in the euro zone increased. Spain’s borrowing costs fell at today’s sale of 5.5 billion euro in short-term bills.

ZEW Economic Sentiment index for Germany climbed from 4.3 points in December to 15.4 points in January, while the indicator for the euro area rose from 15.5 to 25.4 points.

Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin claimed that the country may be interested in buying bonds from the euro zone's European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Kudrin's comments turned out to be positive for euro in the short-term, as they come just weeks after China and Japan both promised to invest in euro zone and peripheral debt, claim the analysts at HSBC. The specialists, however, aren’t sure if euro’s able to test the recent maximums taking into account uncertainty surrounding talks on the euro zone safety fund.



Chart. H1 EUR/USD

More info about FBS