Investing.com - The euro pared losses against the other major currencies on Wednesday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said it expects to fully implement its trillion euro quantitative easing program.
EUR/USD was last at 1.0627, off session lows of 1.0572.
Draghi played down speculation that recent signs of a recovery in the euro zone economy could see the bank curtail its bond buying program.
"Our focus will be on the full implementation of our policy measures," he said.
He said there is “clear evidence” that the policy measures are effective and added that borrowing conditions for firms and households have “improved notably”.
The ECB is monitoring inflation closely the ECB chief said, and it still expects inflation to rise back towards its target in 2016 and 2017.
Draghi also played down concerns that the asset purchase program will struggle to find enough euro zone bonds to buy.
The press conference was briefly disrupted by a protester shouting “end ECB dictatorship.”
The ECB maintained its benchmark interest rate at a record-low 0.05% earlier Wednesday, in line with market expectations. It kept its marginal lending at 0.30% and left its deposit facility rate unchanged at minus 0.20%.
The euro backed away from session lows against the yen, with EUR/JPY at 126.91, after falling as low as 126.35 earlier.
Meanwhile, the dollar trimmed gains after a report showed that manufacturing activity in New York State fell unexpectedly last month.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said the Empire State manufacturing activity index fell to -1.19, from 6.90 in the prior month. Economists had forecast an increase to 7.0.
The report, coming on the heels of Tuesday's disappointing retail sales data, added to speculation that the Federal Reserve could delay hiking interest rates until late 2015, instead of tightening midyear.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was last at 99.17, off highs of 99.58.