NEW YORK – The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury did not intervene in foreign exchange markets during the January – March 2019 quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said today in its quarterly report to the U.S. Congress.
The U.S. dollar, as measured by the Federal Reserve Board’s broad trade-weighted dollar index, depreciated 0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2019, with relatively modest moves against most major and emerging market currencies. The main factor weighing on the dollar over the quarter was a decline in market expectations for the future path of the target range for the federal funds rate, though this was largely offset by the relative outperformance of the U.S. economy vis-à-vis most other jurisdictions and a perceived shift toward a more accommodative policy stance by central banks in other advanced economies. Among major currencies, the dollar depreciated 2.2 percent against the British pound, 2.1 percent against the Canadian dollar, and 2.4 percent against the Chinese renminbi. By contrast, the dollar appreciated 2.2 percent against the euro and 1.1 percent against the Japanese yen.
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.
