Forexpros – The euro was lower against the pound on Wednesday, as the cost of insuring Italian and Spanish government debt against default rose, amid fears that the euro zone’s bailout fund may be insufficient to prevent sovereign debt contagion.
EUR/GBP hit 0.8813 during European morning trade, the pair’s lowest since Monday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8829, shedding 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8796, the low of July 25 and resistance at 0.8816, Tuesday’s high and a two-week high.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Berlin was against a “blank check” for the European Financial Stability Facility to purchase bonds on the secondary market.
Schaeuble also said European governments must prevent a breakup of the euro region as well as an “uncontrolled” exit of one of its members.
The comments sparked fresh concerns that last week’s agreement on a second bailout package for Greece has not fully addressed the issues relating to the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis.
The euro was also lower against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD slipping 0.10% to hit 1.4495.
The greenback remained broadly lower as talks between U.S. Congressional leaders on a plan to raise the government’s USD14.3 trillion debt ceiling ahead of an August 2 deadline remained deadlocked.