Euro Holds Steady as Greek Problems Placed on Back Burner

The euro continued to hold near $1.29 on Thursday morning, as little change was seen after Tuesday's teleconference between eurozone finance officials. The teleconference was the first in a series of talks to discuss whether or not to extend conditions for the next installment of Greek aid money. After agreeing to a firm timeline for spending and budget cuts in order to receive aid from its eurozone peers, Greece has found itself behind on its targets. Analysts say it will not meet its budget goals until at least 2016, two years later than the original aid agreement stated. The problem is that the country is badly in need of its next installment of aid and some creditors like Germany are not willing to hand out more money without reform. While the first teleconference didn't bring about any change in the situation, Reuters reported that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the call was beneficial and they were making progress. Many are expecting the big decisions to be made on the final call, scheduled for November 12th. This call will be critical, as Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras claimed his country's cash reserves would run out on November 16 if they did not receive aid. Also putting pressure on the euro was new unemployment data, reported by the BBC on Wednesday evening. The figures show that eurozone unemployment is at its highest level ever, with Spain leading the pack at 25.8 percent unemployed. Even more disconcerting, over half of people under the age of 25 are unemployed in Spain. Germany, unsurprisingly, had the lowest figures with 5.4 percent unemployed. The overall unemployment for the region was 11.6 percent, more than one percent higher over last year's figure.