European Commission president Romano Prodi today said he was not concerned by the fluctuations of the euro, which has fallen sharply this week. Prodi said it was more important that the euro was regarded "tete-a-tete with the dollar" by the world's financial players, and emphasised that it was now "behaving like a normal currency". "The euro is a new protagonist in the world economy and I don't care if (it is at) USD1.09 or USD1.18 or USD1.00 even," he told a press conference, adding that the single currency's status was more important.
The euro rose to record highs against other major currencies earlier this year, eroding eurozone exporters' competitiveness and the value of their foreign currency earnings at a time when global demand was already weak. But it has since retreated and earlier today hit four-month lows against the dollar and five-month lows against the yen. Asked about Sweden's referendum on euro entry next month, he said, "We would like to have Sweden as a new member of the euro because of the Swedish economy." However, he added that he would "never interfere in the internal debate". //www.fxcentre.com