The euro slid back under $1.18 on Thursday after the ECB held interest rates and kept the easy money spigot open despite hiking its growth forecast for the eurozone.

Meanwhile US stocks added to records following solid US retail sales data and as Disney advanced following a mammoth acquisition of key 21st Century Fox assets.

The European Central Bank, as expected, left its headline interest rates unchanged at historic lows, including the main refinancing rate pegged at zero, and kept its huge support for the eurozone economy in place.

But it significantly lifted its eurozone growth forecasts, expecting to see the economy expand 2.4 percent this year, 2.3 percent in 2018 and 1.9 percent in 2019.

However inflation is not expected to return to its optimal level of just under 2 percent, with the ECB saying it expects consumer prices to rise 1.7 percent in 2020.