Euro Pressured by Greek’s Decision

The Euro held close to a 2-month trough against the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session with investors worried about the outcome of Greece’s Parliamentary vote on new austerity measures which must be approved before the next tranche of their bailout loan is released by the Troika. The latest austerity package includes tax hikes and budget cuts of some €13.5 billion through to 2016.

As reported at 11:47 a.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the EUR/USD pair was trading at $1.2786, close to the $1.2767 low struck on the EBS trading platform on Monday. Analysts say that the EUR/USD pair continues to trade within the tight trading range of $1.2800 to $1.3200, where it has been since mid-September.

Markets are also turning their focus to the U.S. presidential election which will be held today, though for the Euro traders the outcome of the Greek vote is more important in the short term say some analysts. The issue, they say, is whether or not Greece will receive its much needed loan in order to keep the country afloat for the next few months. To that end, one senior official from the E.U. said that it was unlikely that any agreement would be obtained by the time the E.U. finance ministers conclude their next meeting in a week’s time.