ATHENS: The Greece crisis drags Euro on a track to record quarterly low against U.S. dollar since 1999. Euro decrease as low as $1.0715, and has lost more than 11 percent since January 2015.
The euro is on track to record its biggest quarterly drop against the U.S. dollar since the currency’s inception in 1999. The currency has tumbled more than 11 percent against the greenback since the start of the year as Europe sorts through the ongoing Greek debt crisis.
The bailout drama in Athens has reignited concerns about Greece’s possible exit from the eurozone after talks between the Greek government and its creditors stalled earlier this week. The struggling country must finalize negotiations or face bankruptcy in just a matter of weeks. The situation added downward pressure on the euro. The currency fell as low as $1.0715. In the last 12 months, the euro has dropped just over 22 percent.
When the euro was first introduced on Jan. 1, 1999, it declined sharply that year, depreciating 14.8 percent by Dec. 31, according to Thomson Reuters data. The euro then hit parity with the dollar in January 2000, before tumbling as low as $0.83 in October of that year.
The euro is approaching parity once again with the U.S. dollar, something the world hasn’t seen since 2002. The eurozone’s official currency previously hit a 12-year low of $1.0495 against the greenback earlier this month on March 12 as the European Central Bank launched its massive quantitative easing program. Europe’s central bank is pumping 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) into its economy over the next 18 months in an effort to restore the inflation rate to a targeted level of 2 percent and help boost economic growth in the troubled region.