EUR/USD slipped sligthly lower in early European trade

The euro showed a slight retreat against the US dollar during the early phase of Mondays European session, as markets awaited the official US retail sales figure, due to be released on Tuesday.

EUR/USD came off a session high at 1.3343, recorded during the early Asian session, as the pair was trading at 1.3328 at 6:30 GMT, slipping 0.13% for the day. Support was likely to be received at August 6th low, 1.3246, while resistance was to be encountered at August 8th high, 1.3399.

Today it was reported by Bloomberg that German Ministry of Economy expected that countrys GDP will expand by 0.75% during the second quarter of the year, which exceeded the median projection of 0.6% in a survey of experts. The official report is scheduled for release on August 14th, as stronger than expected results might have proven favorable for ending the prolonged recession period in the single currency region.

“Stronger growth in Germany is a gift for its euro-area partners — it signals the end of the region’s recession,” said Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING Groep NV in Brussels, cited by Bloomberg. “What we’ll see is a stabilization in the euro area but not yet a recovery, which we can be enthusiastic or cheerful about. It’ll be too slow to reduce unemployment and solve fiscal problems in distressed countries.”

On the other hand, Germanys Bundesbank reduced its growth forecast for 2013 to 0.3% in June from 0.4% previously, while cutting also its 2014 growth projection to 1.5% from 1.9%. In addition, the European Central Bank predicted that euro regions economy will contract by 0.6% during 2013, while in 2014 it will advance 1.1%.

Meanwhile, the US dollar endured a whole week of pressure after recent non-farm payrolls report on August 2nd said, that US economy has added fewer than anticipated job positions during July. This indicator further bolstered uncertainty over the timing of Feds Quantitative Easing pare back.

The United States was expected to release a report on retail sales tomorrow.

Elsewhere, the euro was trading almost without change against the British pound, as EUR/GBP cross ticked down a mere 0.01% to 0.8605 at 6:57 GMT. In the mean time, the common currency was higher against the Japanese yen, with EUR/JPY pair up by 0.15% to trade at 128.58 at 6:58 GMT.