The U.S. dollar rose briefly to the upper 147 yen range Thursday morning in New York, hitting its highest level in over 32 years following the release of data showing slightly higher-than-expected U.S. inflation.
In view of the consumer price index, many investors anticipated that U.S. interest rates will keep rising to fight inflation and decided to sell the Japanese currency as it brings relatively low returns under the country's monetary easing policy, analysts say.
The U.S. currency briefly rose to 147.66 yen, a level unseen since August 1990 after the Labor Department said the same day that the consumer price index rose 8.2 percent in September from a year earlier, exceeding the market projection of 8.1 percent.
At 5 p.m., the dollar was traded at 147.17-27 yen.
The department also said the so-called core index, tallied after removing the volatile costs of energy and food, increased 6.6 percent, the fastest since August 1982.
The results have fueled speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will again raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage point at its next policy meeting in November, after deciding on rate hikes of the same size at the three previous meetings, to curb persistent price increases.
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