January 26, 2002	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 11, 1422

LONDON, Jan 25: The euro fell to a new six-month low point below $0.87 on Friday amid increasing signs of recovery in the US economy, dashing any hopes that the cash launch might send it back up to parity this year.

The single European currency fell as low as $0.8667 from 0.8777 late on Thursday in New York. It later recovered slightly to $0.8684.

The dollar was being quoted at 134.70 yen from 134.68.

Sterling was weaker against the dollar but stronger against the euro after figures showed that the British economic grew by an annual pace of 1.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2001 against 2.2 per cent in the third.

The fall in the value of the euro came after US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan gave Thursday a relatively optimistic outlook for the world’s largest economy.

Greenspan said: There have been signs recently that some of the forces that have been restraining the economy over the past year are starting to diminish.—AFP