NEW YORK, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar fell against most other major currencies on Wednesday as investors digested the newly-released minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting.
Most Federal Reserve officials see it appropriate to raise interest rate soon if economy continues to improve, minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting showed Wednesday.
"Most participants judged that if economic information came in about in line with their expectations, it would soon be appropriate for the (Federal Open Market) Committee to take another step in removing some policy accommodation," said the minutes released in the afternoon.
During the meeting, Fed officials also discussed plans to reduce the central bank's 4.5-trillion-U.S. dollar balance sheet.
According to the minutes, nearly all policymakers favored a plan to increase caps or limits on the amount of Treasury and agency securities that would be allowed to run off each month.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.17 percent at 97.185 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1201 dollars from 1.1179 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.2949 dollars from 1.2965 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar gained to 0.7486 dollar from 0.7483 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 111.76 Japanese yen, higher than 111.73 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar dipped to 0.9746 Swiss franc from 0.9759 Swiss franc, and it moved down to 1.3426 Canadian dollars from 1.3518 Canadian dollars.
