In the course of today’s trading, the US dollar is getting cheaper against the euro, yen and pound sterling after strengthening the previous day against the background of the publication of the minutes of the March meeting of the Federal Reserve System (FRS), which showed the “hawkish” attitude of the US Central Bank managers.

According to the minutes, many of the participants of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on March 15-16 were ready to raise the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points (bp), but still opted for a less significant increase – by 25 bp. – due to fears that the US economy would face negative consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

In addition, the minutes showed that the Fed intends to reduce the amount of assets on its balance sheet much faster than it did in the past. Fed leaders have almost agreed on a plan that will see the balance sheet shrink at a rate of up to $95 billion per month.

Under this plan, proceeds from $60 billion a month of maturing US Treasuries and $35 billion a month of mortgage bonds will not be reinvested in securities. The Fed will only reinvest proceeds above those limits in the market, the minutes said.

Yesterday after the publication of the minutes, the dollar rose 0.1% against the euro, 0.04% against the pound and 0.2% against the yen.

As of 9:08 Moscow time today, $1.0915 was given for the euro, compared to $1.0896 at the close of the previous session. The pound sterling rose at the same time to $1.3086 compared to $1.3069 the previous day.

The value of the U.S. currency paired with the Japanese national currency amounted to 123.65 yen by 9:08 Moscow time against 123.80 yen at the end of previous trading.

Calculated ICE index, showing the dynamics of the dollar against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) fell by 0.09%, the broader WSJ Dollar Index – by 0.06%.