U.S. dollar little changed after Fed announces new approach to inflation

NEW YORK, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar was roughly flat in late trading on Thursday after the Federal Reserve rolled out new policy strategy on inflation.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.0048 percent at 93.0093.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.1821 U.S. dollars from 1.1815 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3204 dollars from 1.3190 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7258 U.S. dollar from 0.7226 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 106.61 Japanese yen, higher than 106.01 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar increased to 0.9087 Swiss franc from 0.9086 Swiss franc, and it fell to 1.3128 Canadian dollars from 1.3153 Canadian dollars.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced on Thursday that the central bank will seek to achieve inflation that averages 2 percent over time, a new strategy for carrying out monetary policy to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic and boost economic recovery.

"Therefore, following periods when inflation has been running below 2 percent, appropriate monetary policy will likely aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2 percent for some time," Powell said in remarks to the Kansas City Fed's annual Jackson Hole research conference, which is held virtually this year because of the pandemic.

The new approach came after the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy-making committee, on Thursday formally approved a revamp of the central bank's statement on longer-run goals and monetary policy strategy following a yearlong review of its monetary policy framework.