Forex: Dollar is falling ahead of the release of US inflation data

The dollar fell on Wednesday ahead of the closely watched inflation reading later in the day that will provide more clues on the path of Federal Reserve policy on interest rates.

After announcing strong jobs data in the US last week, eyes are now focused on the inflation report and the US currency has been moving in a narrow range ahead of the announcement.

The pound rose 0.04% to $1.2432, while the euro, in the latest transaction, rose 0.1% to $1.0924. The two currencies moved away from their one-week lows recorded on Monday.

The dollar index, which measures the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.05 percent to 102.07.

Economists polled by Reuters expected inflation in March to be 5.2 percent year-on-year, down from 6 percent, while core inflation is expected to rise to 5.6 percent.

Markets expect by 74 percent that the US central bank will raise interest rates by 25 basis points next month, but they also expect to cut rates several times, possibly from July until the end of the year.

Banking sector turmoil triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last month raised bets that the US central bank would not raise interest rates to the level previously expected in order to ease pressure on the sector.

The Australian dollar rose 0.07% to $0.6658, while the New Zealand dollar rose 0.05% to $0.6195.

Bitcoin recorded a slight increase of $ 30,285 in its latest transactions, to continue above the $ 30,000 level, which it exceeded for the first time in ten months on Tuesday.