The euro crept slightly higher versus the dollar on Friday, edging away from this week’s 11-month low amid a lull in the newsflow from debt-savaged Europe.
The single currency was making gradual gains until the release of tame inflation figures from the United States.
Markets were soothed after Italy’s new government won a crucial confidence vote, paving the way for sweeping austerity measures that may alleviate pressure from the bond markets.
Italian borrowing costs jumped to euro area record high on Wednesday.
U.S. consumer prices held steady in November, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department, with lower energy prices offsetting minor increases in other sectors.
The consumer price index for November was unchanged from October levels, which showed a 0.1 percent decline from September.
The euro leveled off near $1.3050, having touched $1.2944 on Wednesday, its lowest since January.
There was little movement near GBP 0.84 versus the sterling, after slipping to a 10-month low of GBP 0.8372 earlier in the week.
Modest gains took the euro to Y101.75 from a multi-month low near Y101.
In economic news from Europe, the euro area trade surplus fell to EUR 1.1 billion in October from EUR 3.1 billion in the same period of last year, Eurostat said Friday.
The French economy is in a better position than the U.K.’s, French Finance Minister Francois Baroin told French radio station Europe 1 on Friday. The minister also qualified the economic situation in the U.K. as “worrying.”
Elsewhere, U.S. consumer prices held steady in November, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department, with lower energy prices offsetting minor increases in other sectors.
The consumer price index for November was unchanged from October levels, which showed a 0.1 percent decline from September. Most economists had predicted a slight, 0.1 percent increase in the cost of consumer goods.