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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061203/ap_on_bi_ge/europe_dollar_s_slideBERLIN - With the European economy on the upswing, companies and governments are shrugging off the dollar's renewed slide against the euro this week — a phenomenon once dreaded as potential poison for the continent's many exporters.
Companies appear to have made their peace with a stronger currency for the time being, especially in export champion Germany, helped by stronger growth at home, currency hedging and increasingly globalized production practices.
The euro reached $1.3257 in European trading Thursday, up from $1.3156 in New York late Wednesday, a 20-month high. The pound hit $1.9644, its strongest since September 1992, with analysts saying the British currency could reach $2 by the end of the year.
Stronger currencies hurt a country's exports by making their goods more expensive in foreign markets. But European policy makers — except for the French — have issued a large, collective yawn.
"I am not concerned," said Dutch central bank head Nout Wellink. Bernd Pfaffenbach, Germany's deputy economics minister, said the stronger euro "reflects the strength of the European economy" — but conceded it was not particularly helpful for exports.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, who decried the dollar's slide in 2004 as "sudden and brutal," did not bother to try to try to talk the euro down. He declined comment on the exchange rate after a speech Wednesday.
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