Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Tokyo - The euro was mixed in Asian trade on Monday as cautious investors mulled reports that a bailout plan for debt-ridden Greece was in the works.
The euro slid to $1.3612 in Tokyo afternoon trade from $1.3626 in New York late on Friday. But it firmed to ¥121.46 from ¥121.03. The dollar rose to ¥89.23 from ¥88.81.
The euro had jumped earlier on reports that France and Germany may offer guarantees on newly-issued Greek debt to encourage investment, before falling back, dealers said.
Barclays analysts said in a client note "we caution that it is early days for these proposed solutions, so any positive impact on the euro is still subject to the ebb and flow of the politics surrounding them."
Investor sentiment towards Greece will be tested when the country plans a sale of as much as five billion euros of 10-year bonds this week, NAB Capital strategist John Kyriakopoulos said.
The European Union's economic supervisor Olli Rehn was set to begin on Monday a visit to Greece to inspect efforts to slash the massive debt and deficit that have rattled the single currency.
Greece's Socialist government has presented a raft of measures designed to cut state spending, boost tax revenue and combat long-standing fiscal mismanagement.
Greece's deficit is more than four times the allowed EU limit, at 12.7% of gross domestic product.
Athens has pledged to cut the deficit by four percentage points this year, but there are widespread concerns that the recession-hit country will fail to meet the target.
If the programme proves insufficient, a meeting of EU finance ministers could demand further corrective action at a meeting on March 16.
Investors also awaited US figures this week including manufacturing data later on Monday and a key monthly employment report on Friday for an indication of the pace of recovery in the world's largest economy.
"There are few investors who are optimistic about the dollar's outlook," said Tokyo Forex & Ueda Harlow FX manager Yuzo Sakai.
"Once they are sure that a Fed policy rate hike won't come soon, players could rush to sell the dollar," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
Against other Asian currencies, the dollar fell to 1,158.95 South Korean won from 1,159.30 on Friday, to $1.4056 Singapore dollars from $1.4084, and to 9,265.00 Indonesian rupiah from 9,335.00.
The dollar also dropped to 46.09 Philippine pesos from 46.16 and to $32.03 Taiwan dollars from $32.07.
- AFP