Euro Advances as EU Leaders Say Economy on Course for Recovery

June 19 -- The euro rose against the dollar and the yen after European Union leaders said the 16-nation region is on course for a “sustainable economic recovery.”

Europe’s currency pared a weekly loss versus the greenback after the EU leaders said “further budgetary stimulus would not be warranted,” in the draft of a statement to be approved today. The Australian and New Zealand dollars and the Norwegian krone rose the most against the yen and the U.S. currency as Asian stocks headed for their biggest advance in a week after U.S. reports yesterday showed an index of leading economic indicators rose for a second month and a regional factory gauge increased.

“We have seen some encouraging news about the global economy in the last 24 hours,” said Danica Hampton, a currency strategist in Wellington at Bank of New Zealand Ltd., the nation’s third-largest bank. “There’s been some relatively promising data out of the U.S. This is helping underpin” currencies against the yen.

The euro advanced to $1.3944 as of 6:46 a.m. in London from $1.3900 in New York yesterday. The European currency climbed to 134.79 yen from 134.17. The yen fell to 96.68 per dollar from 96.47. It dropped 0.9 percent to 77.69 against Australia’s dollar and lost 0.5 percent to 61.84 to the New Zealand dollar.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said yesterday its general economic index climbed to minus 2.2 from minus 22.6 in May. The Conference Board’s index of U.S. leading economic indicators rose more than forecast in May for the second month.