Investing.com - The euro slid to session lows on Wednesday after a senior European Central Bank official indicated that it could begin implementing quantitative easing measures as soon as the first quarter of next year.
EUR/USD touched session lows of 1.2444 and was last down 0.15% to 1.2454.
The single currency has come under pressure in recent months amid heightened expectations that the ECB is moving closer to implementing additional easing measures to spur growth and inflation in the euro area.
ECB vice-president Vitor Constancio said Wednesday that such a move would be a “purely monetary policy decision”, within the ECB’s “mandate and our legal competence”.
He added that the bank could act before the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2015.
Investors were looking ahead to a string of U.S. economic reports due out later Wednesday, including data on initial jobless claims and new home sales ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day holiday.
The dollar turned broadly lower on Tuesday after lackluster data on consumer confidence and house price inflation offset a report showing that U.S. economic growth was far stronger than initially estimated in the third quarter.
The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index fell to a five month low in November, one month after touching its highest level in seven years, as optimism over the short term outlook waned.
Another report showed that U.S. house prices rose more than expected on a year-over-year basis September, but were unchanged on a monthly basis.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned after a separate report showed that the U.S. economy posted growth of 3.9% in the three months to September, far higher than the initial estimate of 3.5%.
The single currency was also lower against the yen and the pound, with EUR/JPY down 0.32% to 146.67 and EUR/GBP losing 0.31% to trade at 0.7916.
In the U.K., data on Wednesday showed that third quarter growth was in line with the preliminary estimates released last month, but indicated that the recovery was less balanced.
Official data showed that U.K. economy grew 0.7% in the July-to-September period, and expanded 3.0% on a year-over-year basis.
Service sector growth was revised up to 0.8% from 0.7%, but industrial output was revised down to 0.2% from the initial estimate of 0.5%. The report also showed that business investment fell 0.7% in the last quarter, the first decline in over a year and exports fell 0.4%.
Household spending was revised up to 0.8%, the most since the second quarter of 2010.