Euro gains to six-week high as Greece offers debt-buyback plan

The euro rose to a six-week high versus the dollar as a Greek offer to spend as much as 10 billion euros to buy back government securities eased concern the regions’ debt crisis is worsening.

The 17-nation euro gained as Greek bonds led advances in debt from the euro area’s lower-rated nations, including Spain and Italy. The Dollar Index sank to a one-month low amid a hardening of positions among U.S. lawmakers on how to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. Credit Suisse Group AG informed certain clients that it will start imposing negative interest rates on cash balances held in Swiss francs, a bank official said.

“The euro will survive,” Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “Europe still has a lot of problems, but more and more people are coming to the realisation that these problems are going to be around for a long time, but probably are not going to be lethal.”

The euro strengthened 0.5 percent to US$1.3055 at 6 a.m. Hong Kong time, after touching US$1.3076, the most since Oct. 23. The shared currency added 0.2 percent to 107.36 yen. The U.S. currency dropped 0.2 percent to 82.25 yen.