1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on Fed forecast

The U.S. dollar dropped against most major currencies Wednesday as the Federal Reserve suggested to slow the pace of interest-rate hike this year in its latest economic forecast.

In its quarterly economic projections released Wednesday, 15 of the 17 Fed officials expected the appropriate timing for the first interest rate hike in almost a decade will be in 2015. However, seven of those officials expected a single rise this year, compared with just three in March. They also indicated that the central bank would raise rates slowly in the following years.

Meanwhile, the Fed officials changed their forecast for this year's economic growth to 1.8-2 percent from its March projection of 2.3-2.7 percent.

Market investors widely see September or even later as the most likely time for a Fed rate increase, which put the greenback under pressure Wednesday.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. dollar against six other major currencies, was down 0.76 percent at 94.274 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1333 dollars from 1.1241 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5829 dollars from 1.5648 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7750 dollar from 0. 7745 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.38 Japanese yen, higher than 123.37 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar inched down to 0.9222 Swiss franc from 0.9325 Swiss franc and decreased to 1.2228 Canadian dollars from 1.2317 Canadian dollars. Endite