Investing.com – The Australian dollar fell despite a signal of higher inflation in a think tank survey released on Thursday.
Melbourne Institute's Consumer Inflationary Expectations survey for January and released on Thursday rose to 2.3% from 2.1% in December.
The MI expectations of higher inflation underscores data released on Wednesday that showed headline CPI in Australia rose by a more-than-expected 0.8% in Q4 on the previous quarter as tradable inflation rose 0.7% and non-tradable inflation rose 0.8%. For the year it was up 2.7%.
On Wednesday, the U.S. dollar traded largely higher against most major currencies in a session void of major economic indicators that also saw investors betting the Federal Reserve will make fresh cuts to its stimulus programs at a policy meeting next week.
The dollar held stable as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.
Many were betting the U.S. central bank will trim USD10 billion from its monthly bond-buying stimulus program and take it down to USD65 billion a month, which bolstered the greenback.
The asset-purchasing program, which began in 2012 at USD85 billion, aims to spur recovery by keeping long-term interest rates low, which weakens the dollar as a side effect and sends investors chasing stocks.
Investors were also hoping Thursday's data on weekly jobless claims will come in solid and convince the Federal Reserve the U.S. economy is in less need of monetary stimulus tools.
Canadian economic growth improved in the second half of 2013, the BoC added, pointing out that stronger demand from the U.S. and the recent depreciation of the Canadian dollar was expected to help bolster exports going into this year.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.01% at 81.32.