The euro's strength against other currencies could cause serious harm to the eurozone economy eventually, the chairman of the 15-nation bloc's finance ministers' group said on Tuesday.
Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker later said he hoped financial markets would soon take into account the alarm expressed on Friday by Group of Seven policymakers at recent excessive volatility in currency markets.
At a European Union economic and social committee meeting in Brussels, Juncker was asked whether a limit was approaching where the euro's strength would start hurting the economy.
"For the time being, this (strong euro) does not have too huge an impact on the real economy. The export sector is developing quite well... But the moment will come when the exchange rate level will start to cause serious harm," he said.
Speaking at the same event, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said: "The current euro exchange rate is stronger than what fundamentals would indicate."
The euro hit a record high of 80.65 pence per euro on Tuesday and was trading within half a cent of its recent record high against the dollar of $1.5912. Later Juncker told reporters that the G7 meeting last week marked the first time that officials of all the seven major developed countries had said they were "concerned by the moves on the level of the main currencies".