FOREX-Euro skids to 11-year low below $1.13 on ECB QE, Greek vote looms

(New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) throughout, updates dateline from previous SINGAPORE/SYDNEY)

* Euro drops to lowest vs dollar since September 2003

* Downtrend in euro seen likely to persist in coming months

* Shared currency sinks to seven-year low vs sterling

* Greek election on Sunday will test euro further

By Jemima Kelly

LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The euro hit an 11-year low below $1.13 on Friday, a day after the European Central Bank announced a plan to pump more than a trillion euros into the faltering euro zone economy, and two days before a snap election in Greece.

The euro fell more than 2 percent against the dollar on Thursday - its biggest daily fall in over three years - after the ECB said it would buy government bonds from March until September 2016 to revive the economy and prevent deflation from setting in.

The euro fell to $1.1258 in early European trading on Friday, its lowest since September 2003 and down 0.7 percent on the day. That left the currency on track for a sixth straight week of losses.

"The reason why the euro sells off on quantitative easing is that this expands the ECB balance sheet - they're going to create extra euro liquidity, putting the euro under pressure," said Ian Stannard, head of European FX strategy at Morgan Stanley in London.

Stannard added that the bank had revised its end-of-year forecast for the euro in a base case scenario to $1.05 from $1.12 before the ECB's announcement. A bearish scenario had the single currency diving to $0.90 by the end of the year.

The ECB left open the possibility that the asset buying could go on past September 2016, which traders said could keep pressure on the euro.

"The open-ended structure is the important thing in my opinion. Even (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO - news) though it's intended to last until September 2016, it's not an actual line in the sand," said Jesper Bargmann, head of trading for Nordea Bank (Other OTC: NRBAY - news) in Singapore.

The euro is set for another trial as global markets await snap Greek elections on Sunday. A win for the leftist Syriza party, which has pulled ahead in opinion polls, could trigger a standoff with the EU/IMF lenders.

The shared currency also set a fresh seven-year low versus sterling on Friday, falling to as low as 75.19 pence , down 0.6 percent on the day.

Against the yen, the single currency fell over 1 percent to a 14-month trough of 133.205 yen.

Data on Friday showing the euro zone economy began 2015 in better shape than expected did nothing to alleviate the pressure on the single currency. (Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano in Singapore and Ian Chua in Sydney; Editing by Hugh Lawson)