December 19, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 8, 1428

LONDON, Dec 18: The euro barely budged against the dollar here on Tuesday, failing to take advantage of a fresh data revealing the depth of the crisis in the US housing sector.

The single European currency in late-day trade was at $1.4398 after $1.4399 late Monday in New York.

The dollar was meanwhile trading at 113.24 yen, up from 112.94 on Monday.

The US government reported that overall US home construction fell 3.7 per cent in November, partly as single-family home building slumped to its lowest level in more than 16 years.

The monthly snapshot by the Commerce Department said the pace of overall new home construction declined to an annualised rate of 1.187 million units.

Despite the fall, most economists had expected housing starts to slump more heavily to around 1.175 million properties.

The report also showed that building permits, a gauge of future construction activity, declined 1.5 per cent to an annual pace of 1.152 million, marking the lowest level of permits since June 1993.

The Commerce Department survey made it clear the US home building market remains under pressure despite recent interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Starts have plummeted 24.2 per cent since November of 2006 as property sales have slowed and home foreclosures have soared.

In European trading on Tuesday, the euro changed hands at $1.4398, against $1.4399 late Monday, at 163.03 yen (162.63), 0.7144 pounds (0.7121) and 1.6604 Swiss francs (1.6545).

The dollar stood at 113.24 yen (112.94) and 1.1532 Swiss francs (1.1487).—AFP