NEW YORK, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar weakened against its major rivals in late trading on Friday as traders digested the closely-watched gross domestic product (GDP) data of the United States.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, faster than expected, data released Friday by the Department of Commerce showed.
The pickup in pace is mostly driven by strong exports and private inventory investment, according to the department's report.
However, economists worried that a lack of momentum domestically might drag growth in the future.
Investors also paid close attention to the reading's inflation component, which was not so upbeat, experts noted.
The quarterly GDP report showed that the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased at a 0.6-percent rate in the first quarter, compared with 1.5 percent in the previous quarter.
Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy prices, rose at a 1.3-percent rate. As a measure of overall inflation, the PCE price index is an important reference for officials at the Federal Reserve when making policy decisions.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.21 percent at 98.0011 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1154 dollars from 1.1128 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.2925 dollars from 1.2893 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7039 dollar from 0.7010 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 111.61 Japanese yen, the same as 111.61 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 1.0191 Swiss francs from 1.0210 Swiss francs, and it decreased to 1.3461 Canadian dollars from 1.3487 Canadian dollars. Enditem
