"If it doesn't come down to 1.90 or so over the next couple of days, I'm thinking about buying euros instead."

The huge outflows have also driven down the yen as carry-trade investors sell it to buy dollars and euros to invest overseas.

Convinced last fall that the euro would recover after tumbling to $1.06 from $1.17, fund managers started buying euros and selling dollars.

Intervention in the markets, by selling dollars and buying euros, is one of the few tools that has not been employed on a full scale.

The market is selling pounds and buying euros: that is what a fall in relative price means!

(Another 179 billion yen was used to buy euros.)

In delicately worded statements, they have effectively promised to buy euros and sell their own currencies again if the market does not get the message.

Is it possible, prior to the changeover, to buy euros electronically, for example through transactions on the Internet whereby certain quantities are set aside.

Britain bought euros, and they've gone up in value.

Holidaymakers are also advised to avoid buying euros, dollars or other overseas currency from airport exchange bureaus.