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"The statement was a controlled copy and paste from the previous
one and the focus shifts to the press conference where Draghi
might talk about the currency's strength," said Viraj Patel, an
FX strategist at ING in London.
The European Central Bank reaffirmed its policy stance on
Thursday, even keeping the door open to increasing bond
purchases, dashing the possibility it would formally signal its
intent to claw back stimulus from next year.
The euro was perched near the day's highs against the dollar, up
0.5 percent on the previous day at $1.1974.
Only 15 of 66 economists polled by Reuters had expected the ECB
to announce a reduction of its monthly asset purchases at
Thursday's policy meeting -- a sharp reversal from a month ago
when slightly over half of respondents expected such a move.
In other major policy news, Sweden's crown fell in volatile
trading after its central bank said it planned to tweak its
inflation-targeting regime, a move interpreted by markets as
dovish.
The crown <SEK=> jumped 0.5 percent against the dollar minutes
before the decision but erased all gains and turned lower on the
day thereafter.
The euro extended gains against the crown <EURSEK=> and settled
at the day's high of 9.5450 per euro. It jumped 0.4 percent
after the decision and at current levels the crown has erased
all its year-to-date gains against the single currency.
Though the dollar lifted on Wednesday, helped by relief over
U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise deal with the Democrats
on extending the debt limit, lingering concerns over North Korea
limited the currency's upside.
Against a broad trade-weighted basket of its rivals, the dollar
fell 0.5 percent lower at 91.83.
(Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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