Major foreign currencies moved little today as markets paused ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate announcement due later.
A quarter-point cut to 1.75 per cent is widely expected.
Analysts said markets would be particularly interested in the Fed statement accompanying the rate decision for clues as to how soon the US economy is expected to emerge from recession and what kind of bias the Fed would be keeping for monetary policy.
Most analysts and traders expect a US interest rate cut of 25 basis points when the Fed announcement comes at 7.15 p.m.
Last night the US Bond Market Association's economic advisory committee also forecast the US economy would contract through the first quarter of 2002 before growing again by the second quarter.
The committee forecast a modest return to growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter, which would accelerate to between 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent in the second half of the year.