* Dollar lower as risk appetite stays steady
* High yielders and commodity-linked currencies gain
* Investors await $11 bln 30-yr Treasury bond sale
* Talk of deficit, diversification weighs on dollar (Updates, adds U.S. data, comment, changes byline, dateline)
By Steven C. Johnson
NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - The dollar dipped against most currencies on Thursday as investors clung to hopes that the global economy is starting to recover, reducing safe-haven demand for the greenback.
Data showing fewer Americans applied for initial jobless benefits last week boosted those hopes, though a government report showing a rise in U.S. retail sales in May was less encouraging, as most of the gain was tied to higher gasoline prices, traders said.
"Without gasoline prices and building materials, retail sales was flat, but we saw continued improvement in jobless claims, so that should allow risk appetite to hold steady for now," said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at Forex.com.
The dollar was also dented by concern about a rising U.S. budget deficit and a steady rise in long-dated U.S. government bond yields that could make it more costly to finance.
On Wednesday, yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury hit 4 percent, and traders aid sale of $11 billion in 30-year bonds set for this afternoon was keeping currency trading subdued.
The dollar was unchanged at 98.15 yen while the euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.4000.
A poll showing rising UK inflation expectations pushed sterling up 0.7 percent to $1.6456, near a session peak of $1.6491. The euro fell to 84.99 pence, its lowest level against the British currency this year.
Adding to the evidence of an economic recovery, a G8 source told Reuters the International Monetary Fund has raised its global growth estimates for 2010 to 2.4 percent from April's forecast of 1.9 percent.
That helped lift the high-yielding Australian dollar, which jumped 1.5 percent to $0.8135.
The New Zealand unit soared 1.8 percent to $0.6413 after the central bank left interest rates unchanged.
Strategists said worries about the U.S. deficit were also nipping at the dollar. The U.S. Treasury intends to issue some $2 trillion of fresh debt in 2009 alone.
"It is quite obvious that people are worried about the U.S. fiscal deficit. The amount of capital being demanded by the U.S. Treasury for its funding programs is huge," Bank of New York Mellon currency strategist Neil Mellor said.
Russia's central bank said this week it would divert some of its reserves away from U.S. Treasuries, a move that may be highlighted when the world's largest emerging countries meet in Moscow next week.