By: Barbara Zigah

As policymakers from Germany and France prepare to meet later today to discuss plans that will help put an end to the ongoing debt crisis in the Eurozone, the common currency slipped against the U.S. Dollar earlier in Asian trading. The Euro attempted to hold onto the 1.3% gain made during yesterday’s trading session but news of slowing growth in Germany, the economic driver of the Eurozone, is sending the Euro lower. Yesterday’s gains were a result of a media report which said that the ECB spent some €22 billion on sovereign debt over the past week, which markets took as a sign of some stabilization in the European equity markets.

One focus of today’s meeting will be some sign of progress on the issue of joint Eurobonds, despite protestations from German and French policymakers who have said that that issue was not up for discussion at this time. Markets are likely to offer support to the Euro if there is even the slightest hint that the topic could be on the table.

As reported at 2:52 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro slipped against the greenback to $1.4418, a decline of 0.2%; on Monday, it had risen to a 3-week peak of $1.4477. Most recently, on the German GDP news, the Euro was trading lower at 1.4385.