Euro falls off four-month high against dollar

Euro fell in American trade against the greenback and away from June 14 highs for the ninth session out of 12, following earlier data from Germany and amid a lack thereof from the US today. 

As of 03:20 GMT, EUR/USD fell 0.19% to 1.1470, with an intraday high at 1.1503, and the lowest since August 20 at 1.1432. 

Earlier German data showed the trade surplus increased to €18.3 billion from €15.9 billion in July, as exports fell 0.1%, while imports tumbled 2.7%. 

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed his confidence in Italy's economic growth in earlier remarks, believing it would surpass the International Monetary Fund's expectations, hours after the IMF cut forecasts for Italian growth to just 1.0% from 1.1%, and much lower than the government's official 1.5% rate. 

Conte believes the markets would calm down as investors digest the new budget, while expressing disapproval over the wide discrepancy between Italian and German bond yields, which reached 315 basis points, adding that whomever invests in Italy will guarantee profit.  

Italian finance minister Giovanni Tria officially revealed the government's new budget with a 2.4% deficit, nothing the budget serves to answer the questions of citizens and bridge the GDP growth gap between Italy and the EU. 

He asserted the deficit for 2019 would also be 2.4%, before reducing it to 2.1% in 2020, then 1.8% in 2021, contravening EU rules on capping budget deficits at 2%.