US President Donald Trump says he'll make a major tax announcement in a few weeks, and the dollar surged after his remarks, despite signals from Congress that the timeline for tax reform was slipping.
"Lowering the overall tax burden on American business is big league. That's coming along very well. We're way ahead of schedule," Trump said during a White House meeting with airline industry executives on Thursday.
"We're going to be announcing something I would say over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax and developing our aviation infrastructure."
The president, who pledged to cut the US business tax rate from 35 per cent to 15 per cent during last year's campaign, gave no indication of what the announcement might entail.
The dollar surged more than one per cent against the yen and rose broadly after Trump's comments.
Investors have been waiting impatiently for details on Trump's campaign pledges to inject the US economy with large-scale fiscal stimulus through additional spending and tax cuts.
The White House and Republicans in the House of Representatives have been in discussions aimed at reaching an agreement on tax reform, including a controversial border adjustment proposal that has come under fire from retailers, oil refiners and automakers.
Republicans, who once expected to wrap up tax reform in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, have recently predicted House legislation would instead emerge in mid-2017 and possibly be voted on before Congress' August recess.
Lawmakers have also been considering ways to upgrade US roads, bridges, airports and rail systems.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters in a briefing on Thursday that Trump's tax plan would be comprehensive and would spur the economy.
The US tax code has not been thoroughly overhauled since 1986 under Republican President Ronald Reagan.
At Thursday's meeting, Trump discussed what he called an obsolete US air traffic control system, as well as out-of-date airport infrastructure, train systems and roads.
He told the executives he was determined to "change all of that" and said they would be very happy with his proposals.
"So we want to help you realise these goals by rolling back burdensome regulations, and you people are regulated probably as much as almost anybody, although I can think of a couple of industries that are even worse," Trump said.
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