Dollar higher

SINGAPORE: The dollar traded near a one-week high against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, rising after minutes of the Federal Reserve´s January meeting showed policymakers were more confident of the need to keep raising interest rates.

The dollar index last stood at 90.117, after reaching a high of 90.166, its highest level since Feb. 13. That marked a gain of about 2.2 percent from a three-year low near 88.25, set last week.

A more upbeat take on inflation in the minutes of the Fed´s Jan. 30-31 policy meeting bolstered expectations for rate hikes.

U.S. short-term interest-rate futures continued to reflect firm expectations that the Fed will raise rates three times this year.

The minutes also showed that voting members as well as the wider group of policymakers had upgraded their forecasts for the economic outlook since December.

Market participants probably interpreted the Fed minutes as leaving open the possibility that the central bank could raise interest rates four times this year, said Hirofumi Suzuki, an economist for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) in Singapore.