At 6:45am (Lisbon time), the euro was at 0.9883 dollars, down 0.71 percent from Friday, the lowest since December 2002.

Russian gas consortium Gazprom announced on Friday it was completely halting the flow of gas to Europe through Germany because of an oil leak in a turbine of the only compressor unit still in operation, something the EU saw as further proof that Russia is not a reliable supplier.

After coming close on 26 August to the all-time high of 345 euros per megawatt-hour set in March at the start of the war in Ukraine, the price of European natural gas had fallen by more than a third last week. With natural gas trading resuming at 7:00 am (Lisbon time).

Since the beginning of the year, the European currency continues to weaken against the dollar.

The dollar has benefited from its status as a safe haven value at a time when the market is uneasy.