1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar slips on weak data, growth forecast

The U.S. dollar declined against other major currencies on Tuesday as retail sales data from the country came out weaker than expected and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered U.S. growth forecasts in 2015 and 2016.

U.S. retail sales for March increased 0.9 percent from the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The latest reading was below market consensus of a 1.1 percent gain.

"Normally, a 0.9 percent retail sales increase in a month can be described as strong, but not this time, because the rise failed to reverse even half of the prior three months'weakness. As it is, sales were extraordinarily weak in the first quarter, which fell 5. 0 percent," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

The greenback came under further pressure after the forecasts of weaker growth. In its biannual World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, IMF projected U.S. growth rate to hit 3.1 percent in 2015 and 2016, lower than January's expectations of 3.6 percent and 3.3 percent respectively.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.73 percent at 98.762 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0658 dollars from 1.0569 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.4781 dollars from 1.4675 dollars. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7630 dollars from 0.7587 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.39 Japanese yen, lower than 120.07 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar declined to 0.9728 Swiss francs from 0.9777 Swiss francs, and it dropped to 1.2491 Canadian dollars from 1.2597 Canadian dollars. Endite