The new €20 notes are displayed in Frankfurt. The single currency sank to $1.0845, the lowest since September 2003,  as European markets closed yesterday.

AFP/London

The euro tumbled through the $1.09 level to strike a fresh 11.5-year low yesterday as the ECB nears the launch of its massive stimulus package and strong US jobs data raises the possibility of a US rate hike soon.
The single currency sank to $1.0845 as European markets closed — the lowest since September 2003 — after strong non-farm payrolls data increased expectations that the US Federal Reserve may move to begin hiking interest rates in the coming months.
But with the ECB to begin its €1.1tn  quantitative easing stimulus on Monday, most eurozone stock markets pushed higher.
Frankfurt’s benchmark DAX 30 index of top companies closed up 0.41% to 11,550.97 points after reaching an intra-day record high of 11,600, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.02% to 4,964.35 points.
On the downside, London’s FTSE 100 index ended the day down 0.71% to 6,911.80 points, having posted a record closing high on Thursday after the ECB announced its bond purchases will start next week.
The euro tanked against the dollar after the US Labor Department said yesterday that the US economy pumped out a stronger-than-expected 295,000 net new jobs in February.
Analyst Craig Erlam said the good jobs numbers “will only feed into expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve in June.”
“The rally in the dollar immediately after the release clearly supports this view...,” he added.
Higher interest rates will make the dollar attractive, while the ECB’s stimulus programme will flood the economy with euros and weaken its value.
Some analysts predict the eurozone unit could reach parity against the dollar amid a growing policy divergence between the ECB and the Fed.
The Frankfurt-based central bank is battling deflation risks across the 19-nation eurozone, while its US counterpart exited its own QE program in October, and is mulling an interest rate hike later this year amid optimism over the American economy.
Wall Street stocks traded mostly lower yesterday as investors bet on a quicker rate hike.
In late morning trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped one% to 17,954.20 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 creeped up 0.12% to 2,101.04, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.74% to 4,945.77.
Tech giant Apple traded 1% higher after an early boost of 2.2% on news it will join the prestigious blue-chip Dow index, replacing AT&T. AT&T was down 0.87% as noon neared.
In European equities trading, Britain’s mining sector was hit particularly hard by sliding iron ore prices.
At the close Fresnillo sank 5.16% to 698.50 pence, Randgold Resources dropped 5.27% to 4,581 pence and Anglo American slid 2.45% to 1,136 pence.