On September 15 and 16 the US Federal Reserve System's members held a meeting. The Fed has kept the key interest rate in the range from 0% to 0.25% per annum. The benchmark rate is expected to remain at the current level until 2023.

As a result, the US dollar is steadily rising.

In addition, the Fed updated its forecasts for the US GDP. Thus, American GDP will drop by 3.7% this year. In 2021-2022, experts suggest a fall of 4% and 3%, respectively.

However, the pound sterling is weakening against the US dollar and the euro. The reason was the meeting of the Bank of England, at which the possibility of switching to negative interest rates was discussed, if it is justified by inflation and economic forecasts.

As strategists say, investors believe that the Bank of England will lower the base rate to minus 0.1% by the end of next year.

Consumer prices fell by 0.2% on an annual basis in August, according to the data from the Statistical Office of the European Union. The last time it was in 2016.

It is difficult to make forecasts for the UK economy, as there are uncertainties about the coronavirus and the UK's trade agreement with the EU.

According to the decision of the British central bank, the volume of the government bond buyback program will remain at 745 billion pounds sterling.

By the way, on Thursday, the Bank of Japan also held a meeting. As a result, the bank retained the ultra-soft monetary policy. However, this did not surprise experts. The short-term interest rate on deposits of commercial banks is minus 0.1% per annum. The target yield on Japan's 10-year government bonds is about zero.

EUR/USD lost 0.09% to trade at $1.1805. The value of the US dollar against the yen fell by 0.26% to 104.68 yen. The euro decreased by 0.35% to 123.57 yen. The yen continues to rise amid uncertainties about the US economy.

GBP/USD dropped by 0.41% to settle at $1.2914, GBP/EUR declined by 0.33%, to 1.0939 euros.

The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar rate against six major currencies, added 0.04%.