The euro rose on Friday against a dollar that remained under pressure after the Fed's monetary policy turn, while the yen gained more than 1% against the greenback with the resignation of the Japanese prime minister.

Around 7:00 p.m. GMT (9:00 p.m. in Paris), the euro gained 0.57% against the greenback, at 1.1889 dollars.

In an intervention at the meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, the chairman of the Central Bank of the United States (Fed) Jerome Powell said Thursday that the institution was now allowing itself to let inflation exceed 2% " for a certain time".

"This announcement suggests that interest rates will stay lower for longer and that the Fed will be less inclined to raise rates when the economy starts to improve," noted Western Union's Joe Manimbo.

"The Fed's dovish rhetoric is weighing on the dollar and investors betting on its decline are still on the move," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, an analyst at Swissquote Bank, told AFP.

An accommodating monetary policy makes the dollar less profitable and therefore less attractive for investors.

The weakness of the dollar benefited the pound sterling, which even reached a new high since December 2019 against the greenback at 1.3356 dollars.

Investors have seemed little worried in recent weeks about the lack of progress in negotiations on a post-Brexit deal between the EU and the UK.

Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey assured Friday that the institution was far from running out of ammunition to respond to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and raised again the possibility of negative rates .

Finally, the foreign exchange market was driven by clear movements on the yen, which climbed against the dollar after the announcement of the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for health reasons.

The Japanese currency took 1.09% to 105.42 yen per dollar.

“Abe is associated with a very aggressive fiscal and monetary policy” which caused a deliberate weakening of the yen, David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets, told AFP.

"Now that he is stepping down, there are fears that his successor will not be as flexible as he was," he added.