Euro dips below $1.01 in two-decade first
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The eurozone's currency has taken a hit that landed it below $1.01 for the first time since 2002.
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US dollar and euro banknotes
The euro's price is continuously going downhill, and it dipped below $1.01 for the first time since December 2002, trading data showed on Friday.
As of 07:44 GMT, the euro traded at $1.0081, down from the previous close of $1.0159. Meanwhile, the dollar index rose 0.33% to 107.49 points.
Inflation in the eurozone soared to new heights in June, official data showed last week, in light of surging energy and food prices and a staggering European economy.
The European Union's Eurostat agency said rising consumer prices in the 19 countries that use the euro, i.e., the eurozone, reached 8.6% in June, an increase of half a percentile point from the previous record of 8.1% in May.
The European Central Bank (ECB) stressed that it would do everything in its power to mitigate inflation and bring it back to its target level amid mounting political pressure on Brussels to drive energy and food prices lower.
Some analysts were optimistic upon seeing core inflation data, which does not include energy and food prices, come in at 3.7%, constituting a meager drop from May data.
The drop will not be enough to drive the ECB from changing its course from what it had decided during its last meeting when policymakers agreed to the bank's first interest rate hikes in decades.
The 0.25% interest rate increase, set to take place during the ECB's upcoming meeting on July 21, will constitute the first hike for the historically low eurozone interest rates.
