The euro dropped on Wednesday as economic data released from the countries of the eurozone was not particularly supportive for the currency, breaking its three-day rally versus the US dollar and the Japanese yen.
French gross domestic product expanded at the annual rate of 1.1 percent in the third quarter of 2015 according to the final estimate while economists had expected it to be the same as the preliminary reading of 1.2 percent. Also released from France, the consumer spending indicator demonstrated a 1.1 percent drop in November — the largest since January 2014. Adding to the bad news from the European Union, Italian retails sales dropped 0.3 percent in October instead of rising at the same rate as it had been predicted by experts.
Meanwhile, the final revision of US GDP came out a bit better than analysts’ forecasts. It adds incentive for the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates while the European Central Bank is likely going to keep monetary stimulus in place. The divergent policy outlooks make it hard for the euro to hold its ground, especially against the dollar.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.0956 to 1.0909 yesterday and traded at almost the same level as of 00:13 GMT today. EUR/GBP declined from 0.7386 to 0.7335 on Wednesday and fall further to 0.7333 on at the star of Thursday’s trading. EUR/JPY was down from 132.62 to 131.90 and stayed close to that level during the current trading session.
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