U.S. dollar edges down amid fears over slowing global growth

U.S. dollar fell slightly on Tuesday as the allure for the greenback as a haven weakened amid signs of global economic slowdown.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday revised its outlook for global economic growth in 2019 to 3.5 percent from its previous forecast of 3.7 percent.

"After two years of solid expansion, the world economy is growing more slowly than expected, and risks are rising," said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the ongoing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, a separate report by the United Nations on Monday cautioned that a worrisome combination of development challenges could further undermine global growth.

The haven Japanese yen extended gains on the back of global growth and the British pond also climbed after economic data showed the Britain's unemployment rate dipped to 4 percent, beating expectations.

The U.S. dollar's weakness in 2019 was a consensus view among currency market traders, since investors bet that the U.S. central bank would stop raising interest rates and the economy would slow after a fiscal boost last year, noted experts.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.03 percent at 96.3041 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1362 dollars from 1.1369 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.2956 dollars from 1.2888 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar fell to 0.7118 dollar from 0.7158 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 109.29 Japanese yen, lower than 109.64 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.9970 Swiss franc from 0.9976 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3349 Canadian dollars from 1.3293 Canadian dollars.