NEW YORK, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar strengthened in late trading on Thursday as safe-haven demand increased on the market amid worries over slowing economic growth.

       The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.97 percent to 104.8510.

       In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0370 U.S. dollars from 1.0533 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was down to 1.2174 dollars from 1.2270 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was down to 0.6831 U.S. dollar from 0.6948 dollar.

       The U.S. dollar bought 128.12 Japanese yen, lower than 129.76 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 1.0045 Swiss francs from 0.9930 Swiss franc, and it was up to 1.3070 Canadian dollars from 1.2986 Canadian dollars.

       The above market reactions came as a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report reinforced bets of aggressive monetary tightening.

       The U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday that U.S. consumer inflation in April surged by 8.3 percent from a year ago, marking the second straight month of inflation over 8 percent.

       Traders fretted that aggressive central bank tightening to rein in surging inflation could slow global growth.