The dollar index was steady around 96.2 on Friday as markets await key US inflation data that could influence Federal Reserve tightening plans. Market estimates are suggesting that the reading could mark its highest year-on-year level since 1982, which could reinforce the Fed’s hawkish turn. The central bank is expected to announce that it will speed up the pace of its stimulus tapering at next week’s policy meeting, and to signal a more aggressive path for interest rate hikes in 2022. Meanwhile, the dollar gained a quarter of a percent in the previous session amid lingering threats from the Omicron variant, with some nations introducing renewed restrictions as global infection cases rise. A study also found that the new variant is more transmissible and has a higher chance of escaping immunity than the delta.
