Investing.com - The euro was steady at two year lows against the dollar on Thursday after the European Central Bank kept monetary policy on hold, as investors awaited its post-policy meeting press conference later in the day.
EUR/USD was little changed at 1.2307 after falling to lows of 1.2295 earlier, the weakest since August 2012.
The ECB said it was keeping euro zone interest rates on hold at their current record lows of 0.05%. It kept its marginal lending at 0.30% and left its deposit facility rate unchanged at minus 0.20%.
Persistently low levels of inflation and a faltering economic recovery have added to pressure on the bank to step up measures to spur growth. ECB President Mario Draghi was expected to stop short of announcing quantitative easing measures but could the bank extend its program of asset purchases.
The annual rate of euro area inflation slowed to a five year low of 0.3% in November, down from 0.4% in October and well below the ECB’s 2% target.
The euro was fractionally higher against the yen, with EUR/JPY edging up 0.08% to 147.59 and was slightly higher against sterling, with EUR/GBP up 0.18% to 0.7862 from 0.7849 earlier.
The pound showed a subdued reaction after the Bank of England kept interest rates ion hold at 0.5% earlier Thursday.
Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was little changed close to five-and-a-half year highs at 89.04.