Euro Continues Its Slide

The euro headed lower in the wake of the European Central Bank’s decision to ease aggressively at its last policy meeting. The common currency traded at $1.3542 at 7:57 GMT on Wednesday morning as falling bond yields helped drive the currency lower.

On Thursday last week, the ECB decided to ease further by creating a package of targeted loans for the region’s banks and by lowering its key interest rates, including taking the deposit rate below zero.  The decision to lower the deposit rate will effectively charge banks for holding on to large amounts of cash and marks the first time a central bank has elected to do so.

So far, the ECB’s move has been effective in driving the euro lower, something bank President Mario Draghi said wasn’t a policy aim, but factored into the decision to ease.  

The eurozone has been struggling recently as low inflation and sky high unemployment rates weigh on morale and confidence. Though the region has effectively turned itself around since its three year financial crisis, many believe the recovery is losing momentum and worry that the ECB hasn’t done enough to kick start the sputtering economy.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called on Germany to do more to help pull its struggling counterparts out of a period of slow growth. Recent French data has shown that the nation’s economy, the second largest in the eurozone, is struggling to return to growth and the nation’s policy makers have repeatedly called for fewer austerity measures and more support for domestic demand.