Euro Posts Strongest Quarter in 5 Years Defying ECB's Stimulus
- Shared currency climbs to highest level since October
- Central bank expands bond-buying purchases this week
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The euro surged this quarter by the most in five years, defying convention as the European Central Bank bolstered its monetary stimulus, a step that tends to debase a currency.
The 19-nation shared currency has erased about half of its 2015 decline versus the dollar this year. ECB President Mario Draghi announced an expansion to the bond-buying program, new long-term loans to banks and cuts to interest rates on March 10, only for the euro to climb after he said he didn’t see the need to add cut rates again. Even as other policy makers have since said rates aren’t at the lower bound, the euro has risen to the highest level since October versus the greenback.