NEW YORK – The U.S. monetary authorities did not intervene in the foreign exchange markets during the January – March quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said today in its quarterly report to the U.S. Congress.
In the first quarter of 2017, the U.S. dollar, as measured by the Federal Reserve Board’s trade-weighted major currencies index, declined 1.8 percent. The depreciation of the dollar reversed much of the movement that had occurred following the U.S. election, and came amid uncertainty regarding the implementation of expansionary U.S. fiscal policy and expectations for a gradual pace of policy normalization by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Among major currencies, the dollar depreciated 1.3 percent against the euro, 1.7 percent against the British pound, and 4.8 percent against the Japanese yen. The dollar also depreciated against most emerging market currencies during the quarter, driven in part by improving global economic data. Emerging market currency performance was led by the Mexican peso, which appreciated 10.7 percent against the dollar, reversing most of the depreciation observed in the last quarter of 2016.
The report was presented by Simon Potter, executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Federal Open Market Committee’s manager for the System Open Market Account, on behalf of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System.
The full report is available on the New York Fed’s website.
