http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article7127642.ece
Euro heads for parity with dollar
Single currency set for long-term slide, sparking fears for Britainâs export-led economic recovery
THE euro is set to slide further and could be heading for parity with the dollar, analysts say. The single currencyâs weakness and mounting fears over Europeâs recovery prospects could hit growth in Britain.
The euro fell to a 19-month low against the dollar of $1.23 on Friday night, amid fears that the austerity measures countries need to adopt to satisfy the EU authorities and the International Monetary Fund could tip them back into recession. Sterling ended the week up against the euro at â¬1.18, but down against the dollar at $1.45.
Olli Rehn, Europeâs economic and monetary affairs commissioner, stoked fears about the pain ahead for Europe when he said yesterday that the â¬750 billion (£638 billion) crisis mechanism agreed last week should be made so unattractive that countries will not want to use it.
âIt is essential that we prepare ourselves for the worst-case scenario. But of course there is the issue of moral hazard,â he said at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
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âThis mechanism must be made so unattractive that no EU leader will resort to it.â He also said that the EU should have an exit strategy from its crisis measures.
The Bank of England warned last week that weakness in the eurozone was one of the main risks to Britainâs recovery. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, said in an interview with Der Spiegel, the German magazine, that âprofound changesâ were needed in the oversight of countriesâ fiscal positions within the eurozone.
A report this weekend from UBS suggests that the appetite for holding euros among private sector institutions and managers of official currency reserves is fading.
âThis monthâs â¬750 billion package of support for the eurozone isnât sufficient to turn the tide of the euro,â said Mansoor Mohi-uddin at UBS, the investment bank. âThat is the verdict both of private sector players, who now have record shorts, but also of reserve managers that weâve been visiting around the world. This suggests the decline in the euro will keep going.â
UBS predicts that the euro will drop from its current â¬1.23 level against the dollar to â¬1.10 next year. Others fear it could drop further than that, to dollar parity or below, replicating the single currencyâs weakness in the early years after it came into being.
State Street Global Advisors, in a report to clients on last weekâs euro rescue package, said: âThe package buys time, but does not fix the underlying problem. Countries may need more loans over the intermediate term. The debt arithmetic is daunting. Some kind of debt restructuring cannot be ruled out.â
Commerzbank, the German bank, expects the euro to stabilise and end the year about current levels, but it warns that conditions could arise for a slide to parity with the dollar.
âThere are risks: a continued loss of credibility for the ECB, difficulties in financing the stabilisation mechanism or legal risks could put additional pressure on the euro,â it said.