FRANKFURT , Germany, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The value of the Euro fell Monday to its lowest level since 2006 on suggestions the European Central Bank may be forced to stimulate the Eurozone economy.
It declined 1.2 percent to $1.1864 in New York early Monday before rising slightly to $1.19370.
The Euro's weakening came after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told a German business newspaper the Bank could soon engage in a full-scale program of qualitative easing, involving purchase of government bonds, to bring more cash into the banking system. The expected result would be a stimulation of the economy and rise in prices. Draghi told the Dusseldorf-based Handelsblatt, "We are making technical preparations to alter the size, pace and composition of our measures in early 2015," the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.
A possible challenge to the Eurozone, the countries using the Euro, also factored into the decline. There is speculation a victory by the left-wing, anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece's Jan. 25 elections could lead the country to renounce the terms of its financial bailout and abandon the Euro as its currency.
"It's probable that the euro will go on sinking," Stephen Lewis of London's ADM Investor Services International Ltd. told Bloomberg News. "There are very few fundamental factors in its favor. Lurking in the background, there are problems over Greece and therefore questions as to whether the Eurozone is going to hold together."
