国际英语新闻:U.S. dollar keeps falling against major currencies

NEW YORK, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar continued falling against most major currencies on Wednesday ahead of the U.S. retail sales data for May, which is seen as another indicator for whether the Federal Reserve would begin to taper its monetary easing program.

The Commerce Department is scheduled to release U.S. retail sales data for May on Thursday. Investors are paying great attention to the report as consumer spending typically accounts for about 70 percent of the country's GDP.

It is widely predicted that U.S. retail sales may post a sluggish growth in May and that the Fed's monetary policy would stay accommodative to assist economic recovery, which weighs on the dollar.

The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners, slipped 0.3 percent, reaching the lowest level since February.

The dollar continued weakening versus the yen as the Bank of Japan on Tuesday decided not to take further steps to expand monetary stimulus. The central bank also failed to take additional measures to address bond volatility.

Meanwhile, the euro advanced against the dollar for the third straight day as economic sentiment improved slightly in the region. Analysts, however, believe the euro will remain vulnerable in the near term.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3329 dollars from 1.3307 dollars of the previous session and the British pound dropped to 1.5576 dollars from 1.5641 dollars. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.9488 dollars from 0.9443 dollars.

The dollar bought 95.69 Japanese yen, lower than 96.14 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged down to 0.9221 Swiss francs from 0.9245 Swiss francs, while up to 1.0214 Canadian dollars from 1.0192 Canadian dollars.