The U.S. dollar continued to decline against most major currencies on Wednesday after U.S. Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rates for the fourth time since December 2015.
"In view of realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation, the (Federal Open Market) Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 1 to 1.25 percent," said the Fed in a statement after concluding its two-day monetary policy meeting.
The dollar pared earlier losses following the central bank's decision, but weak economic data still weighed on the dollar index.
U.S. economic data came out softer than expected. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all urban consumers decreased 0.1 percent in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday.
Over the last 12 months, the all items index rose 1.9 percent. The index for all items less food and energy increased 0.1 percent in May, and it rose 1.7 percent over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for May decreased 0.3 percent from the previous month to 473.8 billion U.S. dollars, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.08 percent at 96.901 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.1217 dollars from 1.1205 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound edged up to 1.2748 dollars from 1.2646 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7585 dollar from 0.7539 dollar. The dollar bought 109.64 Japanese yen, lower than 109.97 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9719 Swiss franc from 0.9686 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.3258 Canadian dollars from 1.3235 Canadian dollars.
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