Investing.com - The euro turned lower against the dollar on Thursday, retreating from seven-week highs after European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said fresh measures to bolster price growth in the euro zone are needed.
EUR/USD was last down 0.29% to 1.1439 after rising to highs of 1.1496 earlier, the strongest since August 26.
The drop in the single currency came after Nowotny, who is a member of the ECB’s governing council said new efforts to boost inflation are needed.
Nowotny said that both headline and core inflation in the euro area are “clearly” undershooting the ECB’s target.
"In my view, it's quite obvious that additional sets of instruments are necessary," he said.
The annual rate of inflation in the euro area turned negative in September for the first time since the ECB launched its trillion euro asset purchase program in March.
The ECB targets annual inflation of close to, but just below 2%.
The euro was also lower against the pound and the yen, with EUR/GBP down 0.33% to 0.7388 and EUR/JPY down 0.635 to 135.5.
The dollar remained under pressure amid growth doubts over whether the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates before the years end after the latest batch of disappointing U.S. economic data.
The dollar weakened broadly on Wednesday after data showing that retail sales edged up 0.1% last month after being flat in August, while core retail sales, which strip out auto sales, fell 0.3%.
A separate report showed that the producer price index fell 0.5% in September, the largest drop since January.
The weak data was seen as reducing the chances for Fed lift off in the coming months.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last at 94.02 after falling to lows of 93.84 overnight, the lowest level since August 26.