NEW YORK, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar strengthened against British pound and Japanese yen on Monday amid disappointing British economic growth in November 2019 and easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The U.S. dollar appreciated nearly 0.5 percent against the pound as British central bank has higher possibility of cutting interest rate in January 2020.
Britain's economy posted 0.3 percent of shrinkage in November 2019 from the previous month in comparison of market expectation of zero expansion, according to the latest figure issued Monday by the country's Office of National Statistics.
Japanese yen lost around 0.5 percent against the U.S. dollar on Monday as geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran abate.
Still, euro, Canadian dollar and Swiss franc picked up against the U.S. dollar.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, dipped 0.02 percent to 97.3470 at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT).
In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1138 U.S. dollars from 1.1123 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.2998 U.S. dollars from 1.3063 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar declined to 0.6906 U.S. dollar from 0.6911 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 109.91 Japanese yen, higher than 109.52 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9706 Swiss franc from 0.9726 Swiss franc, and it decreased to 1.3047 Canadian dollars from 1.3058 Canadian dollars.
