NEW YORK: The US dollar sank against the euro on Wednesday after the minutes to the last Federal Reserve meeting showed a clear dovish tilt among policy makers.
In the details of the discussions in the March 18-19 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, there was no sign of worries about inflation and little difference on the outlook for an interest rate hike, still seen only in late 2015.
"Beyond the broad agreement to continue tapering the pace of asset purchases, most FOMC members are still keen to be seen supporting the continuation of extraordinarily accommodative Fed policy for some time yet," said Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
At 2100 GMT, the euro was at $1.3852, compared with $1.3797 late Tuesday.
Baruch Spier of DailyFX pointed out that the minutes showed several FOMC officials concerned that the official committee forecasts overstated the pace of any rate hike.
In addition, he said, "the minutes from the meeting failed to support Chair (Janet) Yellen's comment that a rate hike may commence six months after the end of quantitative easing."
The minutes thus supported the view that Yellen's "six months" remark after the FOMC meeting, which sent the dollar flying, "was more of an off-the-cuff response to a reporter than a calculated timeline," Spier said.
The yen slipped after its big jump Tuesday on the back of hawkish comments from the Bank of Japan.
The dollar rose to 101.97 yen from 101.75, while the euro reached 141.26 yen, up from 140.44.
The British pound continued its climb, rising to $1.6792 from $1.6749. The dollar slipped to 0.8795 Swiss franc from 0.8832 franc.
- AFP/rw
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