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NEW YORK, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar ended lower against other major currencies on Thursday as investors were digesting the newly-released Federal Reserve statement and the outcome of the Dutch election.
The Fed decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 0.75-1.0 percent, according to a statement released after its two-day meeting on Wednesday.
The Fed's updated projections showed that policymakers expected the interest rate to rise to around 1.4 percent at the end of 2017, unchanged from the original estimates, implying two more rate-hikes later this year.
The greenback was under pressure as the statement was relatively dovish and failed to signal a faster pace of future rate-hikes.
Moreover, the U.S. dollar declined against euro on Thursday as the outcome of the Dutch election was consistent with the opinion polling and eased market concerns of the populist trend in European polls this year.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.12 percent at 100.620 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0710 dollars from 1.0683 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.2346 dollars from 1.2261 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7667 U.S. dollar from 0.7657 U.S. dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 113.40 Japanese yen, lower than 113.87 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9978 Swiss franc from 1.0031 Swiss francs, and it edged down to 1.3334 Canadian dollars from 1.3369 Canadian dollars.
