Investing.com - The euro trimmed losses against the U.S. dollar on Friday, but remained under pressure as the European Central Bank’s most recent policy statement continued to weigh on demand for the single currency.
EUR/USD eased off 1.1080, the session low, to hit 1.1149 during U.S. morning trade, still down 0.26%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.0944, the low of March 9 and resistance at 1.1217, Thursday’s high.
The euro found some support after ECB President Draghi said on Thursday that the central bank did not anticipate that it will be necessary to reduce interest rates further, but added that this could change.
But the single curreny remained under pressure as the ECB cut its benchmark interest rate to a record-low of zero from 0.05%. Market watchers had been expecting no change.
The central bank also cut the deposit facility rate deeper into negative territory, to minus 0.4% and cut the marginal lending rate cut to 0.25% from 0.30%.
In addition, the ECB boosted its quantitative easing program by €20 billion per month to €80 billion, starting in April.
The euro was also lower against the pound, with EUR/GBP retreating 0.70% to 0.7772.
In the U.K., the Office for National Statistics earlier said the trade deficit narrowed to £10.29 billion in January from £10.45 billion in December, whose figure was revised from an initial deficit of £9.92 billion.
Economists had expected the trade deficit to come in at £10.3 billion in January.