The euro steadied today from its biggest weekly slide in 18 months against the dollar following robust comments by leading ECB officials.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Saturday that there was no call to move rates up or down at last week's policy meeting, while Governing Council member Axel Weber said the ECB had not relaxed its view on inflation risks.
Another positive for the euro came from comments by Opec secretary general Abdullah al-Badri over the weekend that Opec may switch to pricing oil in euros rather than dollars.
Earlier, the euro was up 0.3 per cent against the dollar at $1.4560 on the day, steadier after last week's 2 per cent slide.
The euro had been hit last week by growing expectations that the ECB was opening the door for future monetary easing after the central bank's policy statement dropped wording about pre-emptive action against inflation while warning of downside growth risks.
Nevertheless, money markets are pricing in nearly 100 basis points of ECB easing by year-end.
Against the yen, the euro slipped 0.2 per cent to 155.46 yen.