The U.S. dollar rallied against most major currencies on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve minutes showed the central bank may raise interest rate earlier than expected this year.

According to the minutes of the Fed's April meeting released Wednesday, officials are open to an interest rate hike as early as June, if the economy continues to improve.

"Most participants judged that if incoming data were consistent with economic growth picking up in the second quarter, labor market conditions continuing to strengthen, and inflation making progress toward the Committee's 2 percent objective, then it likely would be appropriate for the (Federal Open Market) Committee to increase the target range for the federal funds rate in June," said the minutes.

Policymakers downplayed the slowing economic growth in the first quarter, when the country's gross domestic product increased at a two-year-low of 0.5 percent, and said the softness in spending in the first quarter was unlikely to persist.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.56 percent at 95.077 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1229 dollars from 1.1316 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.4587 dollars from 1.4458 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7234 dollars from 0.7327 dollars.

The dollar bought 109.93 Japanese yen, higher than 109.10 yen of the previous session. The dollar climbed to 0.9861 Swiss francs from 0.9797 Swiss francs, and it inched up to 1.2991 Canadian dollars from 1.2911 Canadian dollars.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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