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The
dollar index edged up 0.1% on the day to just short of 90, but
remained on track for a fall of more than 1% over the week. It
had reached its lowest in more than two years at 89.723 on
Thursday.
Policy updates from central banks in the United States, Japan,
Britain, Switzerland and Norway this week should do little to
upend recent currency market trends and the long-term weakening
of the U.S. dollar, analysts predicted.
"The announcements this week certainly reinforce the prospects
of loose monetary conditions and favourable risk asset
performance, which led by the Fed will keep the U.S. dollar on a
weakening path," analysts at MUFG said in a note.
The Bank of Japan announced on Friday an extension of its
COVID-19 loan programmes by six months and a surprise review of
its policy to consider "further effective and substantive
monetary easing", to conclude by March 2021.
The dollar rebounded as much as half a percent against the yen
to 103.595 yen. It was last up 0.2%, but remains on track for a
more than half a percent drop against the Japanese currency for
the week.
The pound reversed some of its gains against the dollar and euro
as knife-edge talks over a Brexit trade deal between the UK and
European Union continued.
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday that "just a
few hours" remained for negotiations to reach a trade deal with
Britain, with the path to any deal "very narrow". British prime
minister Boris Johnson said trade talks were "looking difficult"
but the door for further negotiations remained open.
Bitcoin traded around $23,000, after rocketing to its
highest-ever level on Thursday.
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Additional reporting by Tom
Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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