The euro has kept its strength against its major rivals last Friday as the currency found a likely hero in the form of the European Central Bank as its key officials provided statements that the markets perceived as hawkish.
Against the US dollar, the euro strengthened by almost 2% as it last traded at 1.1664, the best settlement for the currency in near two years. Earlier in the week, the euro was just trading above the 1.14 level but the greenback stretched its slide due to political headwinds.
The US dollar index, which gauges the performance of greenback against six major currencies, tumbled by 0.56% on Friday to settle at 99.46. The greenback has suffered in the past trading days as investors mulled over the inability of President Donald Trump to pass key reforms.
Meanwhile, the steadiness of the euro came from hawkish remarks of ECB chief Mario Draghi, stating that the bank is on track to taper its stimulus this September. Markets have expected that this future move by the central bank may force to tighten its monetary policy.
Furthermore, the acceleration in global growth has provided support for the central bank to hint for a future tightening of monetary policy, which have also steered stock markets in the bullish territory.
Against the British pound, the euro tallied 2.4% gains to finish at 0.8973 from 0.8761 while versus the Australian dollar, it pared some previous losses to end at 1.4736 from 1.4419.