The Euro reversed its declines against the US Dollar which it had been experiencing for the past two days amidst signs that the currency does not appear to be weakening anytime soon. The Euro-USD exchange rose to USD $1.4408, increasing by 0.6416 percent.
Last Friday, European Union officials agreed to review the terms of the 110billion-euro bailout package which Greece received last year. This has been taken as a sign that the European Union plans on maintaining higher levels of interest rates, in contrast to the Fed’s policy of keeping record low interest rates. The Euro was also boosted by news about Germany’s exports in March increasing by 7.3 percent, news which bolstered calls for a tightening monetary policy via increasing interest rates.
Meanwhile, the US Dollar depreciated before data released by the Labour Department showed that the number of payrolls in April had increased by more than forecasted. Last week, applications for unemployment benefits declined by 46,000 to 428,000, while sales at US retail outlets increased by 0.6 percent in April. All of these factors hint towards an improving US economy, which helped to appreciate the USD-JPY exchange rate by 0.0462 percent to 80.67 Yen.
The AUD-JPY exchange rate was at 86.2803 Yen.