Euro lower against yen in Asia on debt fears

TOKYO: The euro slid against the yen in Asian trade Thursday after a poorly received German bond sale deepened fears the eurozone debt crisis was spreading to the bloc's biggest economy.

The euro bought 103.00 yen early in Tokyo, compared to 103.15 yen in New York late Wednesday.

The single European currency also fell against the dollar heavily overnight, reeling from news of a lacklustre German bond auction that struck at the heart of the eurozone's fiscal credibility.

But the euro recovered slightly to $1.3367 in Asia from $1.3347 in New York, while the dollar was at 77.06 yen, down from 77.29.

Germany sold only 3.9 billion euros worth of its benchmark 10-year "Bund" out of the 6.0 billion euros on offer, an outcome reflecting "extraordinarily nervous market conditions," said a German government spokesman.

German bonds are considered the gold standard of eurozone debt.

The financial crisis is also reaching Belgium, where borrowing costs have spiked in recent months, although the nation has so far avoided the market pressure that quickened political change in Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been forced to take out multi-billion-euro bailout loans from international creditors.

"Worries over European sovereign bonds are spreading, and now we see accelerating rises in Belgian bond yields," JP Morgan chief FX strategist Junya Tanase told Dow Jones Newswires, referring to the higher rates of interest Belgium has to pay on its debt.

"The Belgian and German bond spread and the euro/yen have a (negative) correlation," he added.

The euro may tumble further below 100.00 against the Japanese unit, if the yield spread between Belgian and German bonds keeps increasing, Tanase added. (AFP)