Investing.com - The dollar was hovering at fresh seven-month highs against the other major currencies on Friday, as comments by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi weighed on the euro and sustained expectations for a 2016 U.S. rate hike supported the greenback.
EUR/USD slipped 0.16% to a seven-month trough of 1.0896.
The single currency weakened broadly after ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that an adjustment to the bank’s stimulus program could come in December, saying its assessment would benefit from new economic projections to be drawn up by ECB forecasters.
The comments came after the ECB left interest rates unchanged at record lows of zero earlier Thursday and kept the deposit facility rate at -0.4%.
GBP/USD held steady at 1.2249.
Meanwhile, USD/JPY was also little changed at 103.91.
Earlier Friday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank may push back the timing for hitting its inflation target.
Kuroda did not indicate how such a delay could affect the BOJ's policy decision, but he said that the bank's bond purchases may slow in the future if 10-year bond yields fall well below its target of around zero percent.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.13% at a fresh seven-month high of 98.42.