U.S. dollar rises on upbeat GDP report

The U.S. dollar increased against most major currencies Friday as the economic growth data from the country came out positive.

According to the second estimate released Friday by the Commerce Department, U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, beating market consensus of 0.4 percent.

In the previous estimate, the increase in real GDP for the fourth quarter of 2015 was 0.7 percent.

The Commerce Department said in a separate report Friday that U.S. personal income increased 79.6 billion U.S. dollars in January, or 0.5 percent, and personal consumption expenditures increased 63 billion dollars, or 0.5 percent.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other currencies, was up 0.88 percent at 98.139 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0928 U.S. dollars from 1.1024 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.3861 U.S. dollars from 1.3965 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7123 U.S. dollar from 0.7231 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 113.91 Japanese yen, higher than 112.96 yen of the previous session. The dollar increased to 0.9974 Swiss franc from 0.9903 Swiss franc but dropped to 1.3522 Canadian dollars from 1.3540 Canadian dollars. Endit