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The loonie is one of the currencies shouldering a disproportionate share of the U.S. greenback's decline, Tamim Bayoumi, head of the North American division of the International Monetary Fund's western hemisphere department, said on Tuesday. "The fall in the U.S. dollar is probably on net a good thing," said Mr. Bayoumi, echoing comments made by the IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the G20 meeting last weekend. "We've had a view for a long time the U.S. dollar is overvalued and that to lower global imbalances it needs to depreciate."

The U.S. dollar sank to record lows Tuesday as traders looked to Washington for new housing data. In morning European trading the euro bought $1.4787, up from $1.4667 late Monday in New York. The British pound rose to $2.0639 from $2.0497 in New York, while the dollar rose to purchase 110.20 Japanese yen from 109.85. The euro and the pound have been climbing steadily against the dollar since August amid fears for the health of the U.S. economy, stoked by the subprime credit crisis. The euro hit its previous all-time high of $1.4752 on Nov. 9.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: A rare meeting of the heads of state of the OPEC countries ended here Sunday on a political note, with two leaders — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran — blaming the weakness of the United States dollar for high oil prices. Despite the best efforts of the host country, Saudi Arabia, to steer the meeting away from politics and promote OPEC's environmental concerns, the leaders of Venezuela and Iran let loose some show-stealing statements. "The dollar is in free fall, everyone should be worried about it," Chávez told reporters here. "The fall of the dollar is not the fall of the dollar — it's the fall of the American empire." During a news conference after the meeting, Ahmadinejad added: "The U.S. dollar has no economic value."

Opec countries meeting in Saudi Arabia clashed on Friday over the declaration to be made by leaders at this weekend’s summit, as Venezuela and Iran pushed for a statement on the impact of the weak dollar on the group’s revenues. The disagreement was revealed when a ministerial meeting Friday afternoon, supposed to be in closed session, was accidentally broadcast live to reporters.