Euro falls across the board as data disappoint, pound fares better on GDP surprise

The euro fall to new lows across the board on Tuesday as data from various parts of the region largely disappointed, while better than expected GDP data from the UK helped the pound fare better even as dollar strength continued to weigh on currencies.

EUR/USD fell to an 11-day low of 1.0713 on Tuesday from the previous close of 1.0833, nearing the 13 March low of 1.0462. The EUR/JPY cross has fallen to a one-week low of 128.65 from 130.08.

Against the pound, the euro fell as much as 0.88% on the day to a one-week low of 0.7250, distancing further from the one-month high of 0.7387 touched last week.

GBP/USD had fallen to 1.4755 ahead of the GDP data but then bounced back to 1.4789, though still weaker than Monday's close of 1.4810 tracking the overall dollar strength.

The USD index has risen to an 11-day high of 98.66 on Tuesday, up 1% so far this week and distancing further from the three-week low of 96.15 touched on 26 March.

The UK economy expanded 3% in the fourth quarter of 2014 as per the final estimate released on Tuesday, significantly revising the previous estimate of 2.7% and pushing the yearly growth rate to 2.4%.

German retail sales growth in February was less than expected with a year-on-year growth of 3.6% compared to January's 5% growth and analysts forecast of 3.7%.

The unemployment change for March from the country, however, came in better than expected at a drop of 14,000, beating the market consensus of a drop of 12,000. The unemployment rate fell to 6.4% from 6.5% in February as well.

At the same time, Italy's unemployment rate rose to 12.7% in February from 12.6% at the start of the year when the market had been expecting a drop to 12.5%. In addition, the jobless rate for the Eurozone as a whole came in at 11.3% trailing consensus of 11.2% and compared to January's 11.4%.

On the prices front, Italy's consumer price index fell 0.1% for March after a 0.1% rise in February.