Eurozone GDP contraction hurts euro

The euro was hurt Friday by new data from the European Union’s office of statistics which showed that the Eurozone’s gross domestic product was down 2.5 percent in the first quarter of the year and that it contracted by an even larger 4.6 percent while compared to last year’s first quarter.

It was the fourth consecutive quarterly contraction for the region, coming on a record contraction of 3.8 percent for Germany’s economy, while the French economy contracted by 1.2 percent in the quarter.

The euro was also hurt by disagreements among European Central Bank officials over issues such as the Bank’s program to purchase assets.

In late morning trade in New York, it took $1.3583 to buy a euro, while the yen traded at ¥129.1497 to the shared currency.

The yen strengthened on the possibility that recovery from the recession could be a long, slow process, sentiment which reduced the demand for higher-yielding currencies.

At nearly 11:30 a.m. in New York the yen traded at ¥95.08 to the greenback, while it was at ¥10.9558 to the South African rand and at ¥14.6141 to the Norwegian krone.

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