Foreign Concerns Hurt Dollar
Despite solid U.S. economic growth and low inflation, the dollar yesterday fell to its lowest level in more than two years against the German mark.</br></br>A combination of factors, including some that have little to do with the United States directly, have been hammering the dollar. These include the peso crisis in Mexico and an expected rise in German interest rates. Whatever the causes, the sagging dollar is beginning to ring alarm bells among top U.S. officials.</br></br>The dollar's weakness promoted an unusual expression of concern this week from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. The Fed, Greenspan told a House Banking subcommittee, will be watching the dollar's value closely in coming months.</br></br>President Clinton, at a press conference yesterday in Ottawa with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, observed, "Well, the truth is that all of us have . . . something less than 100 percent control over the value of our currency. . . . I was stunned last year when the value of the American dollar went down when we were having 4 percent growth, the best economic year in 10 years, {and} the lowest combined inflation-unemployment rate in almost 30 years."</br></br>In late New York trading, the dollar was quoted at 1.4618 marks, down from 1.4675 late Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The dollar improved slightly against the yen and was changing hands at 97.00 yen, up from 96.71. The dollar's record low against the Japanese currency was 96.12, reached Nov. 2.