Today, worries with regard to the budget deficit woes continue all over Europe. The news releases today from the U.K. and the Euro zone are showing that the agony is continuing as the deficit widened.

Data released today revealed that government spending in U.K. exceeded revenue by 12.4 billion pounds last month, yet better than forecasts of 14.0 billion pounds shortfall. Also, January’s reading was revised to 43 million pounds from a previous of 4.3 billion pounds.

The attention remains on the swelling budget deficit in Europe. The Euro-zone trade balance report for January was released. Amid the release of the report, the euro showed little reaction against other major currencies.

Presently, the euro is worth 0.8947 against the pound, 123.43 against the yen, 1.4477 against the franc and 1.3665 against the dollar.

The Canadian dollar edged lower against the US dollar and the Japanese yen as crude oil price fell for the first time in 3 days. The Canadian dollar, however, rallied against the euro.

Crude oil prices, which closed near US$83 a barrel on Wednesday after members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to leave their oil output unchanged, pared gains on Thursday in Asia as the dollar gained and an Energy Department report showed that U.S. crude inventories climbed for a seventh week.

Light sweet crude oil for delivery in April was down 0.68 percent or 0.56 cents at US$82.37 per barrel in the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:40 am ET.

The Canadian dollar declined to 88.90 against the Japanese yen before recouping some of its losses around 2:00 am ET. This was mainly due to the Bank of Japan retained its economic view and said conditions are likely to continue improving, although the pace of improvement is likely to remain moderate for the time being.