US dollar falls despite strong economic data

New York, Dec 12: The US dollar declined against most major currencies on Friday despite the solid economic data from the country.

The US Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand increased 0.3 percent in November, beating market consensus, the Labour Department reported on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November rose 0.2 percent from the previous month to $448.1 billion, Xinhua news agency reported.

However, the greenback was under pressure as market concerns accumulated amid the slumping oil prices, which fell to near seven-year low on Friday. Safe-haven currencies, including Japanese yen and Swiss franc, climbed against the US dollar during the session.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers,was down 0.41 percent at 97.542 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to $1.0994 from $1.0936 in the previous session, and the British pound rose to $1.5229 from $1.5159 in the previous session. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.7191 dollar from 0. 7289 dollar.

The US dollar bought 120.78 Japanese yen, lower than 121.62 yen of the previous session.

The US dollar slipped to 0.9820 Swiss franc from 0.9891 Swiss franc, and it went up to 1.3735 Canadian dollars from 1.3618 Canadian dollars.  (IANS)

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