LONDON, July 5 Reuters A stampede for dollars as global recession risks mount has left other currencies battered and bruised, with the euro getting trampled on more than most as surging European gas prices worsen economic growth fears.

Analysts predict the single currency, which on Tuesday hit its weakest since 2002, will soon fall to parity. 

The euro is seen as particularly vulnerable given Germany, Italy and others39; heavy dependence on Russian gas, and fears that sizeable European Central Bank rate hikes could reignite another euro zone debt crisis.

All of this means the euro will fall further and markets are waking up to that, said Jordan Rochester, FX strategist at Nomura Securities. We are looking for parity and the question is whether that is too small a move or whether it can go lower. We think it can.

Below are a series of charts laying out the challenges.

HOW LOW?

The euro has lost 10 versus the dollar this year and at 1.0238 is close to the psychologically crucial parity point it last saw in mid2002, when it was just three years old.

It has also hit new sevenyear lows versus the Swiss franc and dropped against the sterling and the yen, but few observers are willing to call a bottom yet.

Nomura39;s analysts have cut their eurodollar target to 0.95 and said parity could be breached as soon as August. Citibank says a move to parity is inevitable.

However, Nomura said that 0.95 was not that important historically, noting that the euro fell from 1.17…