TOKYO: The euro firmed against the dollar and yen in Asia on Wednesday after European finance ministers boosted the powers of a bailout while there were also hopes of a deal for cash-strapped Italy.
The common unit traded at $1.3324 and 103.80 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, up from $1.3317 and 103.66 yen in New York late Tuesday.
The dollar was at 77.94 yen, compared with 77.90 yen.
Eurozone finance ministers turned to the International Monetary Fund for more help to keep the monetary union together late Tuesday after they missed their goal of boosting their own bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), to one trillion euros from 440-billion euros.
However, they did manage to agree on fresh weapons for it, allowing the fund to guarantee 20-30 percent of potential losses incurred by investors who buy bonds of troubled governments. They also decided to create co-investment funds to allow public and private investors to participate in the EFSF.
Some finance ministers suggested the European Central Bank (ECB) could play a bigger role in the crisis through the IMF by providing loans to the US-based fund, which would then give aid to eurozone nations.
There are hopes that a plan to provide Italy with a 400-billion-euro bailout -- to help pay some of its 2 trillion euro debt -- that would see the IMF provide a quarter with the rest coming from the ECB and stability fund.
"There is growing conviction that Italy may soon need to be bailed out," a eurozone official with direct knowledge of the matter told Dow Jones Newswires.
The official said there were no official talks yet but they could start during or after a December 8-9 summit of European leaders.
A senior dealer at a Japanese bank told Dow Jones: "If the ECB shifts away from a cautious stance to give more funds, that could boost the euro in the short term."
The euro was also given support from news that the November US Conference Board measure of consumer confidence for in the world's biggest economy jumped following record post-Thanksgiving retail sales at the weekend.
"A plethora of evidence that US economic growth is holding up, providing a welcome offset to the bad news from Europe, is cushioning fears of a global recession," it said.
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