Weak US retail sales data wiped out an early dollar rally on Thursday. The greenback had initially recovered some lost ground after the US Treasury stepped back from the brink of branding China a currency cheat.

In an aggressively-worded twice-yearly foreign exchange report, the Treasury said it was “extremely dissatisfied” with the pace of reform, and would continue to “actively and frankly press China to quicken the pace of renminbi flexibility”.