TOKYO- The euro rose to a four-month high against the dollar on Wednesday on hopes European Union leaders may agree on stimulus and deepening fiscal integration to shield the economy from the pandemic.
The dollar was on the defensive, particularly against other growth-leveraged currencies such as the Australian dollar, following an uptick in US inflation and news of progress in vaccine development for COVID-19.
The euro rose to $1.1400, after reaching its highest level since March 10 at $1.1423 earlier in the trade.
Against the yen, the common currency hit one-month high of 122.47 while it had scaled a two-week high of $0.91125 British pound the previous day and last stood at 90.690 pence.
“Germany, France and Italy have all taken severe lockdown steps and as a result the coronavirus now appears to be under control. The economy could be gradually recovering,” said Bart Wakabayashi, Tokyo Branch manager of State Street Bank and Trust.
The euro has been helped by hopes the European Union could agree at its summit later this week on a rescue financing package that will limit the economic damage to the bloc from the coronavirus pandemic.
