Dubai: The euro fell towards its lowest level in eleven years against the dollar on Thursday after the European Central Bank expanded its bond buying programme.
The new Quantitative Easing (QE) programme would ensure that it prints money to buy up to 60 billion euros from March till the end of September 2016.
As a reaction, the euro fell 0.5 per cent to $1.1550, after sliding as much as 0.8 per cent to $1.1513. It slid to $1.1460 on Jan. 16, the weakest level since November 2003.
“The euro will remain weak against other currencies in 2015. The obvious conclusion is that ECB’s policy response today will further curb the attractiveness long-term of fixed-income assets and thus on relative basis be a net-positive for equities,” said Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank.
Euro STOXX 50 was 0.62 per cent higher at 3,289.86, after rising as much as 3,318.50.
“ECB’s QE programme will make European equities more attractive relative to US equities,” said Garnry.
The ECB is launching the programme with a view to buoying the flagging Eurozone economy.
