Investing.com - The euro pushed higher against the dollar on Wednesday after Greece played down the threat of an imminent default, as the greenback paused following a rally on the back of expectations for a U.S. rate hike later this year.
EUR/USD was up 0.41% to 1.0916, still not far from the one-month lows of 1.0862 struck on Tuesday.
The single currency found support after the Greek government expressed confidence to that it would make a €305 million payment to the International Monetary Fund due on June 5.
Athens had previously warned that it would be unable to make the repayment if a cash-for-reforms deal with its international lenders was not reached by then.
The euro received an additional boost after data on Wednesday showed that German consumer confidence improved this month.
The GfK consumer sentiment index ticked up to 10.2 from 10.1 a month earlier, boosted by increased domestic demand. It was the highest level since October 2001.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned after data on Tuesday showed that U.S. business investment plans increased, consumer confidence improved and house prices extended gains.
The upbeat data supported the view that the Federal Reserve could start to raise interest rates later in the year if the economy continues to improve as expected.
The dollar dipped against the yen, with USD/JPY easing to 122.94, not far from Tuesday’s eight-year peaks of 123.31.
In Japan, Wednesday’s minutes of the central bank’s April meeting showed policymakers pushed back the time frame for achieving its 2% inflation target, fuelling expectations for additional monetary easing later this year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.37% to 97.03, off the five-week peaks of 97.47 set on Tuesday.