Euro to close week above 1.16 for first time in two years

Euro rose to the highest since August 24, 2015 against the dollar in American trade, heading for the second weekly profit in a row, amid a lack of data from the euro zone and the US, the world's largest economy. 

As of 03:55 GMT, EUR/USD rose 0.25% to 1.1660 from the opening of 1.1631, with an intraday low at 1.1619, and a 33-month high at 1.1677. 

Yesterday, European Central Bank voted to hold interest rates unchanged at their record lows., and maintain the assets purchase program at 60 million euro a month, before ECB president Mario Draghi asserted in a press conference the strength of the region's economic recovery, pointing to growth risks as roughly balanced, while adding low energy prices limit inflation. 

Draghi said the current monetary policy supports inflation, while structural reforms are needed to underpin recovery, adding that ECB has the flexibility to intervene further if conditions worsened, noting the ECB hasn't reached its goals yet, and asserting the main mandate of the bank is to stabilize prices not growth or employment. 

The policy divergence between the Federal Reserve and the ECB sent the euro surging to multi-year highs against the dollar, as markets price in a possible tightening of policy later, while the Fed might delay rate hikes to next year as US inflation softens.