TOKYO: The euro held steady Monday after it rallied on news of a last-minute deal to extend Greece's bailout, giving Athens a crucial lifeline to pay its bills and avoid a damaging default.
The common European currency was slightly lower at $1.1380 and 135.37 yen, from $1.1381 and 135.51 yen on Friday in New York where it got a boost from the conditional debt deal.
The dollar barely weakened to 118.95 yen from 119.03 yen in US trade.
On Friday Greece received the four-month debt bailout extension, easing worries over its future in the eurozone.
But European finance ministers gave Athens until late Monday to present proposals that would persuade its creditors to sign off on the extension.
On Sunday, Athens was racing to finalise the proposals.
Its bailout programme expires at the end of the month. Without an extension, it could run out of money and be forced out of the single-currency bloc.
"The Tokyo market has largely taken over the euro-buying sentiment following the agreement," said Daisuke Karakama, a market economist in Mizuho Bank's forex unit.
"But problems have yet to be resolved completely. First, we want to see details of reform plans to be submitted by Greece on Monday."
The dollar was mixed against other Asia-Pacific currencies.
It strengthened to Sg$1.3608 from Sg$1.3594 on Friday and to 44.25 Philippine pesos from 44.21 pesos.
The greenback weakened to Tw$31.71 from Tw$31.72, to 1,108.63 South Korean won from 1,112.23 won, to 12,843.60 Indonesian rupiah from 12,873.00 rupiah, and to 62.21 Indian rupees from 62.25 rupees.
It was unchanged at 32.57 Thai baht.
The Australian dollar bought 78.35 US cents, up from 78.08 cents, while the Chinese yuan fetched 19.01 yen against 19.00 yen.
Comments
Comments are closed.