Germany's Deputy Finance Minister said Thursday that the euro's recent fall against the dollar will help the country's economy and that the softening of the European Union's budget pact isn't weakening the euro zone's single currency. During a debate on the European Union's budget agreement, the Stability and Growth Pact, Barbara Hendricks told the lower house that the government's policy doesn't endanger the euro's stability. "It's still so that the euro is still clearly higher than we had ever assumed," she said. And the euro's slight downward tendencies that we have seen over the past weeks are of benefit to the German economy and are far away from what has been generally assumed, namely that the euro would establish itself around parity."