Dollar slips

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TOKYO: The dollar lost ground in Asian trading on Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve´s latest meeting for clues as to the pace of interest rate hikes, while Europe´s political woes kept a bruised euro under pressure.

The Fed minutes due to be released later on Wednesday could either reinforce or undermine recent hawkish comments from central bank policy makers.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said late on Monday in a speech in Singapore that she would be comfortable raising rates at this point if the economy maintained its current performance.

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker also told reporters on Monday that he would support an interest rate increase at a mid-March policy meeting as long as inflation, output and other data until then continue to show the U.S. economy is growing.

The dollar was 0.2 percent lower at 113.45 yen, edging away from its peak of 114.955 yen touched a week ago, which was its highest since late January.

"The dollar was pushed up by the Fed talk, but its upside is heavy in the Asian session, due to factors including Japanese companies´ seasonal repatriation," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, chief currency strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.