The dollar declined further on Thursday, its third consecutive fall, after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted 11-to-1 in favour of a third phase of quantitative easing.

The Fed said it will buy $40bn of agency mortgage-backed securities each month, starting this Friday.

It is also sticking with Operation Twist, the programme where it swaps short-dated securities for longer term securities.

The euro climbed from $1.2894 on Wednesday to $1.2997 last night, notably close to the $1.30 mark.

The ICE dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, declined from 79.686 immediately before the QE announcement to 79.211 not long after, having initially risen higher.

Meanwhile, the pound traded hands at $1.6158, compred to $1.6105 the previous evening, while the euro climbed to buy 1.2163 Swiss francs and the Australian dollar rose to exchange at $1.0555, against $1.0463 on Wednesday.

The pound was last night being traded at 1.2433 euro, compared to 1.2500 the evening before.

NR

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