The European Commission has dismissed a news report that it is studying currency controls to stop a runaway rise in the euro and says there are no plans to impose controls on capital movements.
"This story is completely groundless," said Mr Gerassimos Thomas, Commission spokesman on economic and monetary affairs.
"The policy on capital movements within Europe is completely clear and there is no intention to have capital movement controls, neither within or outside Europe," he told Reuterstoday.
The report, published in The Daily Telegraphnewspaper today, said Brussels was examining the legal basis for 1970s-style currency controls.
The Telegraphreport said a team working for Mr Pedro Solbes, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, concluded that Brussels could lawfully impose quantitative restrictions on capital inflows, clearing the way for a crisis response if the dollar continued to fall.
Analysts were sceptical about the story, although they admitted that it had encouraged some traders to unload euros that they had snapped up during the recent bull run.
Mr Kit Juckes, chief strategist at the Royal Bank of Scotland Financial Markets, said he could not see capital controls being introduced. "It seems completely ludicrous. How could it possibly work?" he said. He added it was one of the stupidest ideas he had heard.