Currencies calm as finance ministers meet Currency markets traded shyly on Monday morning as last week's best performers retrenched and haven currencies came back into fashion. The Swedish krona, the Norwegian krone, the euro and the Swiss franc were among the G10 winners last week versus the US dollar - each gaining more than 1 per cent against the greenback since November 19. On Monday, however, the euro fell 0.1 per cent to $1.2964, the Swedish krona lost 0.3 per cent to Skr6.6327, the Norwegian krone dropped 1.2 per cent to Nkr5.6621 while the Swiss franc lost 0.2 per cent to SFr0.9288. Analysts pointed to uncertainty before Monday's Eurogroup meeting, the Catalonian election results and a natural retracement following last week's bullishness as reasons. Traders have warned, in particular, of headline risk moving currency pairs on Monday as the troika attempt to finalise a plan for Greece. That said, there is a feeling in the market that a risk-on tone will dominate again this week. However, Citigroup analysts argued that last week's G10 winner, the Swedish krona, might face further headwinds yet again in coming days no matter what the wider market does. "We think that disappointing third-quarter GDP numbers out of Sweden on Thursday could highlight the risks of further cuts by the Riksbank as soon as December," argued Valentin Marinov and Josh O'Byrne. In contrast to last week's outperformers, the traditional haven of the Japanese yen found some more strength against the US dollar having lost 3.4 per cent since mid-November, when early elections were called for December 16. The yen gained 0.5 per cent against the dollar to Y82.04, having also bounced slightly at the end of last week, but remains at levels not seen since April. The yen's general move weaker is predicated on the presumption that a new government, most probably involving the opposition Liberal Democratic party and its leader Shinzo Abe, will look to implement powerful new easing measures in order to stimulate the economy. Mr Abe had previously called for unlimited monetary easing and an increased inflation target but in more recent interviews has appeared to moderate his tone, particularly where the independence of the Bank of Japan is concerned. Sitting BoJ governor Shirakawa, whose five-year term ends in April, has defended his record on monetary easing, amid the mounting political pressure. Many analysts believe there will only be a significant policy shift from the BoJ until Mr Shirakawa's term ends in the spring - that wait may cause some short-yen trades to be cut. Countering that is a belief that, abstracting from political risk, fundamental changes in Japanese trade and investment flows may cause further yen weakness over 2013. Although, such expectations have been defied before The dollar index traded flat at 80.2 points on Monday having fallen 1.3 per cent from 81.2 points on November 19.