Timeline: Euro's ups and downs

The euro stages a rally against the dollar

2002

Jun 26: Euro hits $0.9944, its highest level since February 2000, after WorldCom admits accounting fraud.

Jan 2: Euro gains 1% to rise above $0.90, as the smooth introduction of euro notes and coin bolsters confidence in the currency.

2001

Dec 2: Enron files for bankruptcy in the biggest collapse in US corporate history, setting the scene for reduced investor confidence in US assets.

Sep 11: Euro rises nearly 2% to $0.9169 the day two hijacked planes topple the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. The euro would within a week hit a six month high of $0.9333.

Jan 5: Euro rises to nine-month high of $0.9595 over concerns about the health of the US economy. US interest rates had two days earlier been cut by half a percentage point to 6.0%.

2000

Nov 10: European Central Bank, with other national eurozone central banks, buys euros in a support drive, leaving the currency at about $0.86.

Oct 26: Euro hits a record low of $0.8225, 30% below its launch value.

Sep 22: Central banks in Europe, Japan and the US buy euros to support the euro, after it falls below $0.85.

1999

Apr 8: European Central Bank orders first interest rate move in its history, lowering the key rate by half a percentage point to 2.5%. Euro closes at $1.0798.

Mar 15: EU commissioners resign en masse amid a financial mismanagement scandal. Euro closes at $1.0943.

Mar 11: Euro at $1.1028, after German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine resigns.

Jan 4: Euro begins trading at $1.1747, and hits a high of $1.1906.