Euro little changed after ECB decision to hold rates; further announcements eyed

On Thursday the euro was steady vs the greenback after the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold and said a further monetary policy announcement would follow at its post policy meeting press conference.

EUR/USD was up 0.20% at 1.1631, almost unchanged from 1.1628 before the rate announcement.

The euro was little changed against the yen, with EUR/JPY at 136.90.

On Thursday the European Central Bank kept the cost of borrowing unchanged and remains poised to announce a plan to buy government bonds with new money, its last gambit for breathing life into a euro zone economy, as Reuters reports.

"Further monetary policy measures will be communicated by the President of the ECB at a press conference starting at 2.30 p.m. CET today," the ECB said in a statement after announcing the rate decision.

Hopes are high for the ECB to unveil large-scale quantitative easing (QE) despite opposition from Germany's Bundesbank and concerns in Berlin that it could allow spendthrift countries to slacken economic reforms.

The central bank has already reduced interest rates to record lows, begun buying debt and funnelled hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans to banks, in the hope that they would lend the money on into the economy and stimulate growth.

As the U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England previously did, by buying launching into QE the ECB would show its commitment to pushing up inflation while also generating a "portfolio effect" whereby investors snap up other debt and securities, some outside the euro zone, thereby depressing the euro.