Forexpros – The U.S. dollar remained broadly lower against its global counterparts on Wednesday, amid indications that Greece was on the verge of a resolution to restructure its debt load and secure a second bailout.
During European afternoon trade, the dollar was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD easing up 0.11% to hit 1.3274.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was to hold talks with the leaders of the country’s three political parties later in the day, to discuss the terms of new austerity measures being demanded in return for a second bailout worth EUR130 billion.
The deeply unpopular measures include billions of euros in government spending reductions, as well as cuts to pensions and wages.
Athens is also in talks with private-sector creditors over a planned EUR100 billion debt swap deal, which is also a precondition for the new aid package.
The euro shrugged off official data showing that German exports fell at their fastest rate in nearly three years in December, narrowing the trade surplus to EUR13.9 billion from a revised EUR14.9 billion the previous month.
The data sparked concerns that the euro zone’s largest economy may have contracted more than originally estimated in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Elsewhere, the Bank of France said earlier that its economy will not grow at all in the first quarter of this year.
The greenback was fractionally lower against the pound, with GBP/USD inching up 0.03% to hit 1.5898.
In the U.K., investors were looking ahead to the Bank of England’s policy decision on Thursday, amid expectations that policymakers will implement a further GBP50 billion of quantitative easing in order to shore up growth in the faltering U.K. economy.
The greenback was slightly higher against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY gaining 0.20% to hit 76.91 and USD/CHF up 0.10% to hit 0.9126.
Official data showed earlier that the unemployment rate in Switzerland held steady at 3.1% in January, in line with expectations.
Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD dipping 0.01% to hit 0.9944, AUD/USD advancing 0.26% to hit 1.0835 and NZD/USD rising 0.44% to hit 0.8394.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, dipped 0.02% to hit 78.58.
On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that the central bank would keep borrowing costs close to zero for another two years, despite data last week showing the U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to a three-year low.
In testimony to the Senate Budget Committee in Washington, Bernanke said the decline in the jobless rate understated weakness in the labor market.
Forexpros
