Investing.com - The euro tumbled to the day’s lows against the other major currencies on Thursday after the European Central Bank cut interest rates across the euro zone to new record lows and boosted its quantitative easing program.
EUR/USD dropped 1.17% to 1.0867 from around 1.0975 earlier.
The ECB wrong footed markets by cutting 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 bank also said investment grade euro-denominated bonds would become eligible for purchases under its asset purchase program.
ECB President Mario Draghi was to outline the factors affecting the monetary policy decision at the post-policy meeting press conference later Thursday.
The euro extended losses against the yen and the pound sterling, with EUR/JPY down 0.61% at 123.9 and EUR/GBP falling 1.19% to 0.7658.