By: Barbara Zigah
In early afternoon trading in Tokyo, the common currency Euro slipped against the U.S. Dollar and the Japanese Yen, but is expected by some dealers to rebound later when data from China confirms a strongly growing economy.
As reported at 1:21 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Euro was trading against the greenback at $1.3460, off from the Wednesday New York close of $1.3474; versus the Japanese Yen, the Euro traded at 110.52 Yen, as against the Wednesday close of 110.49 Yen in New York. The sell-off in the Euro was driven primarily by hedge fund operators inside Asia, many of which see the Eurozone sovereign debt troubles as continuing for the long term.
In China, gross domestic product data will be released later in the day, and analysts expect to see expansion of 9.8% for the last quarter of 2010, ahead of 3rd quarter growth of 9.6%. A consensus of economists also expects that the consumer price index will likely have risen 4.6% last month, slightly lower than expectations of 4.7%.
The strong growth comes despite recent efforts by the Chinese government to curtail the grown and its resultant inflation. The Chinese President, Hu Jintao is currently in the United States meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama and analysts expect that Chinese growth may be among topics of discussion.