In the global currency markets, the euro strengthened against the dollar last week, but third in a row, so its course reached the highest levels in two and a half years.
The price of the euro against the US currency rose 0.8 percent last year, to $ 1.1750, and at one point reached $ 1.1777, the highest level since January 2015.
The dollar weakened against the Japanese currency, so the exchange rate slipped 0.4 percent to 110.65 yen.
As a result, the dollar index, which shows the value of the US relative to the six most important currencies in the world, fell 0.2 percent last week, to about 93.70 points. At one point it slipped to only 93.26 points, the lowest level since June 2016.
The dollar’s rise to the dollar the fourth week since the last five thanks to the investor’s conviction that the US Fed will not rush with tightening monetary policy, while the European Central Bank could soon announce a reduction in stimulating monetary measures.
The focus of the market was the Feda session last week, in which the US monetary authorities are more openly exposed to weak inflation. Although the Fed has said he plans to continue the gradual increase in interest rates, investors are not convinced.
Money marketers now estimate that the prospects for Feda’s interest increase in December are considerably lower than 50 percent, while they have been considerably higher in recent years.
Therefore, the weakening of the dollar continued to be in line with the basket of the rest of the world’s most important currencies, and most in line with the euro.
Over the past four weeks, the dollar has weakened against the euro by roughly three percent, and by about 11.5 percent since the beginning of the year, which raised concerns about the level at which the European Central Bank (ECB) would be willing to allow the strengthening of the euro without taking any intervention.
“The seven-month rise of the euro, resulting in its exceeding the upper limit of $ 1,0341 to $ 1,1714, within which it has moved in the past three years, brought into question our expectations that the exchange rate movements of that currency currency will remain within these limits By the end of the year, “says Barclays’ new estimates.
The dollar was not helped by data on accelerating the growth of the US economy. On Friday, gross domestic product (GDP) rose 2.6 percent in the second quarter, up 1.2 percent in the first quarter. But this is in line with analyst expectations, so it has not triggered a dollar exchange rate.
In the investor’s focus last week was the Swiss currency as the franc for the dollar weakened by more than two percent. Its losses were even more pronounced against the euro, as investors became more optimistic about assets denominated in euros after recent optimistic comments by central monetary authorities in the eurozone