Oil prices keep rising on weaker U.S. dollar

Oil prices continued to rally Thursday as the U.S. dollar depreciated against other currencies, making the dollar-priced crude less expensive and more attractive for buyers holding other currencies.

The BOJ on Thursday decided to keep its current monetary policy despite market expectations of additional easing, while again putting off the target date of achieving its 2 percent inflation goal. The U.S. dollar plunged about 3 percent against Japanese yen following the news.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.67 percent at 93.759 in late trading.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude output decreased for a seventh week to the lowest level since October 2014, according to a report released by the Energy Information Administration Wednesday.

On the U.S. economic front, the U.S. real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2016, worse than traders' estimates, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Commerce Department Thursday.

The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery added 70 cents to settle at 46.03 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery increased 96 cents to close at 48.14 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Endit