The euro will profit from "a clear revival" of economic growth in the euro zone later this year, ECB executive-board member Sirkka Haemaelaeinen, said in Milan Friday. In Barcelona, her ECB executive-board colleague Eugenio Domingo Solans said the euro could start rising in several months from now. Both inflation and the current-account surplus in the euro zone speak for a strengthening of the currency, Domingo added.

The euro fell to a low on Thursday of $1.0200 -- down some 12 per cent from the beginning of the year -- shortly after a regular meeting of the ECB's governing council.

But markets largely ignored the officials' comments, with the euro trading around $1.0243 midafternoon Friday. Ms. Haemaelaeinen emphasized the euro's potential to appreciate. "All in all, the depreciation of the euro is to a large extent perceived as acyclical phenomenon and not as a sign of structural problems or even a lack of credibility," she said at a convention of the foreign-exchange industry.

"In fact, prospects for future economic developments in the euro area are in many ways quite favorable," she added. Haemaelaeinen said that stability is the ECB's main goal for the euro, and she strongly denied suggestions that the bank is attempting to talk down the single currency to boost economic growth in the euro area. Earlier in the day, U.S. financier George Soros told a newspaper that a weak euro "is exactly what Euroland needs" to boost its exports and the economy.

Part of the euro's weakness can be traced back to psychological factors, speculative elements and market expectations that aren't always in line with economic fundamentals, she said. She added that she is less concerned about the euro's slide than about market participants' "ignorance of fundamental factors."

In the light of these comments, it isn't surprising that the ECB doesn'tplan to intervene to support the single European currency. "At the moment, we don't have any plans for intervention," said Solans. He said the euro's weakness against the dollar is only "logical, normal and understandable," given its differences compared to the U.S. economy.