The euro touched the highest in almost six weeks against the dollar as a report showed French manufacturing production increased in October.

The shared currency reached its strongest in five years versus the yen before European Central Bank president Mario Draghi speaks in Rome today.

The dollar rose to a six-month high against the yen after Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president Richard Fisher said the US central bank should begin dialing back its asset purchases as soon as possible.

The pound climbed a two-year high versus the greenback as a gauge of UK house prices increased.

“It would be difficult for the ECB to ease further,” said Marito Ueda, a senior managing director at currency-margin company FX Prime in Tokyo.

“The euro has been stable. The money that flew out of the region during the crisis is starting to come back.”

The euro rose 0.1 per cent to $1.3754 at 8.09 am in London after reaching $1.3768, the most since October 30.

The common currency was little changed at 141.75 yen after climbing to 142.17, the highest since October 2008.

The dollar slipped 0.2 per cent to 103.08 yen after rising to 103.39, the strongest since May 23.

French manufacturing production rose 0.4 per cent in October, after shrinking a revised 0.5 per cent the month before, a government report showed today.

Industrial production contracted by 0.3 per cent, the same as the month before, another report from the statistics office in Paris showed.

Bloomberg