The euro advanced toward a one-month high against the dollar on speculation efforts by the region’s policy makers to prevent the sovereign-debt crisis from deepening may succeed. Sterling rallied to the strongest level versus the dollar since November as a U.K. report showed inflation accelerated in December faster than economists forecast. Russia, holder of almost $500 billion in foreign-currency reserves, may join China and Japan in buying bonds from European rescue funds to help stem a debt crisis in the euro zone. “All of this positive risk appetite really helped fuel the euro,” said Boris Schlossberg, director of research at the online currency trader GFT Forex in New York. The euro advanced 0.7 percent to $1.3383 at 8:35 a.m. in New York, from $1.3294 yesterday. The dollar slipped 0.3 percent to 82.40 yen, from 82.68. An index of manufacturing in the New York region increased to 11.9 in January from a revised 9.9 in the previous month, the New York Fed reported. The median forecast of 51 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an increase to 12.5. To contact the reporters on this story: Catarina Saraiva in New York at asaraiva5@bloomberg.net; Paul Dobson in London at pdobson2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

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