NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - Speculators' net long positioning on the U.S. dollar slid further to their lowest level since around mid-April, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the net long dollar position drifted to $13.07 billion in the week ended June 7, from $14.71 billion the previous week, CFTC data showed. Net long dollar positions have declined for a fourth consecutive week.

The data came ahead of hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer price index data, which reinforced expectations of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, a positive factor for the greenback.

In the 12 months through May, the CPI increased 8.6%, the largest year-on-year increase since December 1981 and followed a 8.3% advance in April. The so-called core CPI increased 6.0% in the 12 months through May. That followed a 6.2% rise in April.

On Friday, the dollar climbed to a near four-week high against a basket of currencies. The dollar index was last up 0.9% at 104.19 =USD . So far this year, the dollar gained nearly 9%, on track for its best yearly performance since 2014.

Speculators also reduced net short positions on the yen to 91,646 contracts, despite the Japanese currency dropping 3% over the past week, which pushed it to a two-decade low.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin net longs hit a total of 490 contracts. Speculators have been net long bitcoin for seven straight weeks, which suggested that short-term investors could be hedging negative bets on bitcoin with long futures contracts.

Bitcoin BTC=BTSP , the largest cryptocurrency by market value, was last down 3.1% at $29,134. Since the beginning of the year, bitcoin has fallen about 37%.

Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen) $8.641 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

18,466

15,201 Short

110,112

109,640 Net

-91,646

-94,439 EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros) $-6.759 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

230,248

236,553 Short

179,705

184,281 Net

50,543

52,272 POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling) $5.571 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

34,618

30,788 Short

105,428

104,893 Net

-70,810

-74,105 SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs) $2.072 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

2,609

2,641 Short

18,741

23,099 Net

-16,132

-20,458 CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars) $0.085 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

39,288

30,520 Short

40,350

37,527 Net

-1,062

-7,007 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars) $3.461 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

31,720

32,897 Short

79,616

81,579 Net

-47,896

-48,682 MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos) $-0.836 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

119,162

114,480 Short

86,436

79,031 Net

32,726

35,449 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars) $1.283 billion

07 Jun 2022

Prior week

week

Long

12,310

9,179 Short

32,081

27,903 Net

-19,771

-18,724
Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis