The euro fell to a 6-1/2-month low against the dollar on Friday as investor risk aversion increased after news an ECB executive board member will resign due to conflict over the central bank's controversial bond-buying. The euro had already fallen to six-month lows versus the dollar and the yen as investors traded on the European Central Bank's lower growth forecast and its shift to a neutral bias.
The euro fell as low as $1.36463 on electronic trading platform EBS, its lowest level since February 22, and was last down 1.7 percent for the day at $1.36543. The euro zone common currency fell to a low of 105.30 yen, the lowest since at least mid 2004, the earliest EBS data available at Reuters, before recovering to 105.419 yen, down 2 percent on EBS. Against the Swiss franc, it was down 0.8 percent at 1.2060 francs on EBS, still above the 1.20 floor set by the Swiss National Bank this week. The dollar index rose to six-month highs of 77.167, helped largely by the euro's fall. Against the yen, the dollar edged up to a one-month high of 77.860 yen on EBS but then fell 0.5 percent to 77.142 yen.