By: Barbara Zigah

The Euro has slipped against the U.S. Dollar in Asian trading today and is facing some headwinds on growing unease that the Eurozone’s efforts to fix the debt crisis are too slow for the markets’ liking. However, supporting the Euro over the U.S. Dollar are investor expectations that the Federal Reserve is likely to soon change its stance and signal that more stimulus may be forthcoming.

In the near term, the markets focus will be on the two central bank interest rate decisions which will be released later today; first at 11:00 a.m. (GMT) from the Bank of England, then at 11:45 a.m. (GMT) from the European Central Bank, with the ECB President’s press conference to follow. There have been many calls for the U.K. central bank to do more to stimulate growth, but whether they take this opportunity to address them is unclear. The ECB, on the other hand, is likely to signal a policy direction change, putting a halt to the rise in interest rates to counteract inflationary pressures.

As reported at 12:54 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro lost 0.3%of its value against the greenback, trading at $1.4058. Against the Swiss Franc, the Euro slipped to 1.2075, a decline of 0.1% yet hovering above the SNB’s peg of 1.20.