TOKYO: The euro held firm against the dollar in Asia on Monday as investors opted to sit and wait for upcoming data.
The single currency, which lost ground Friday on weak European economic figures, rose marginally to $1.3207 in Tokyo morning trade from $1.3196 in New York late Friday.
Against the Japanese unit, the euro was at 107.83 compared with 107.93 in New York. The dollar slipped to 81.67 yen from 81.78 yen.
"Investors may take some time out from Europe/Greece watching this week to focus on the data," National Australia Bank said in a note.
The 10-day gathering of China's National People's Congress got under way in Beijing, with Premier Wen Jiabao setting a growth target of 7.5 percent for 2012, lower than last year.
European and US services indices are due out later Monday and China's inflation data is expected on Friday. US jobs data are also to be released on Friday.
"The week ahead is chock full of event risk. Given this, and the still uncertain global environment, there is a good chance we (will) finally see market volatility begin to rise from current low levels," National Australia Bank said.
The European Central Bank's governing council is to meet in Frankfurt on Thursday for its regular monthly policy-setting meeting.
It is not expected to announce any changes to interest rates or other major measures until it is able to assess the impact of recent moves to flood the banks with cash to avert a credit crunch, analysts said.
It pumped a record 529.5 billion euros ($701 billion) into European banks last week.
At the same time ECB chief Mario Draghi could run into increasing resistance from Germany's orthodox Bundesbank over many of the unconventional measures he has initiated since taking office in November.
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