US dollar rises after Fed minutes

The US dollar increased against most major peers as investors were digesting the newly-released Federal Reserve minutes.

The US central bank released the minutes from its January meeting on Wednesday. According to the minutes, the Fed officials see increased economic growth and an uptick in inflation as justification to continue to raise interest rates gradually.

"Almost all participants" saw inflation moving up to the Fed's 2 per cent inflation goal over the "medium term" as growth "remained above trend and the labor market stayed strong," the minutes showed.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.37 per cent at 90.048 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to $1.2297 from $1.2337 in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to $1.3929 from $1.3988 in the previous session, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Australian dollar was down to $0.7816 from $0.7879.

The US dollar bought 107.79 Japanese yen, higher than 107.29 Japanese yen of the previous session.

The US dollar was down to 0.9348 Swiss franc from 0.9359 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.2689 Canadian dollars from 1.2642 Canadian dollars.

--IANS

pgh/