Investing.com - The dollar edged up to fresh seven-month highs against the other majors currencies on Friday, as expectations for a U.S. rate hike before the end of the year continued to boost demand for the greenback.
EUR/USD held steady at a seven-month trough of 1.0892.
The dollar was boosted after New York Fed President William Dudley said on Wednesday that the U.S. central bank will likely raise interest rates later this year if the economy remains on its current trajectory.
Meanwhile, the single currency remained under pressure after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that an adjustment to the bank’s stimulus program could come in December, saying its assessment would benefit from new economic projections to be drawn up by ECB forecasters.
The comments came after the ECB left interest rates unchanged at record lows of zero earlier Thursday and kept the deposit facility rate at -0.4%.
GBP/USD slipped 0.18% to 1.2232, after the U.K. Office for National Statistics reported on Friday that public sector net borrowing rose by £10.12 billion in September, compared to expectations for an increase of only £8.20 billion.
Public sector net borrowing rose £10.33 billion in August, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated gain of £10.05 billion.
USD/JPY edged down 0.10% to 103.83, while USD/CHF added 0.16% to 0.9943.
Earlier Friday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank may push back the timing for hitting its inflation target.
Kuroda did not indicate how such a delay could affect the BOJ's policy decision, but he said that the bank's bond purchases may slow in the future if 10-year bond yields fall well below its target of around zero percent.
The Australian dollar was stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.13% at 0.7637 and with NZD/USD declining 0.38% to 0.7167.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD eased up 0.08% to trade at 1.3237, the highest since October 13.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.16% at a fresh seven-month high of 98.45.