The euro hit a 14-month high against the dollar in Asian trade on yesterday as investors worried about the outlook for the U.S. economy.
The euro climbed to US$1.4887 in Tokyo afternoon trade - the highest level since August 2008 - up from US$1.4852 in New York late Tuesday.
The European currency slipped to 132.36 yen from 133.30. The dollar fell to 89.90 yen from 89.67.
While some market watchers attributed the greenback's losses to waning demand for "safe-haven" currencies, others blamed it on disappointment that the world's largest economy is not recovering as quickly as many had hoped.
"I think the euro rose against a backdrop of falling confidence in the U.S. economic recovery," said Marito Ueda, dealer at FX Prime.
The euro scaled new peaks despite a worse-than-expected report on German investor confidence released Tuesday.
The ZEW index, which measures the confidence of financial market players in the future health of Europe's biggest economy, fell to 56.0 from 57.7 in September.
The focus in markets was shifting to a news conference by Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa later yesterday, after the central bank decided to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 0.1 percent.
The BoJ made no mention of whether it will extend beyond the end of 2009 its emergency measures aimed at keeping credit flowing to struggling companies during the economic downturn.
Against Asian currencies, the dollar fell to 1,166.25 South Korean won from 1,169.95 a day earlier, to 1.3924 Singapore dollars from 1.3974 and to 9,375 Indonesian rupiah from 9,445.
It slipped to 46.46 Philippine pesos from 46.50, to 33.28 Thai baht from 33.32, and to NT$32.24 from NT$32.29.
