NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. dollar declined in late trading on Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the country welcomed the weakness of the currency.

Mnuchin said at the World Economic Forum that the declining dollar is good for U.S. exporters, suggesting he is not worried about the currency's recent drop.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 1 percent to 89.225 at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.2404 dollars from 1.2294 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.4214 dollars from 1.4000 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.8079 dollar from 0.7996 dollar.

The dollar bought 109.05 Japanese yen, lower than 110.33 yen of the previous session. The dollar decreased to 0.9453 Swiss franc from 0.9581 Swiss franc, and it was down to 1.2321 Canadian dollars from 1.2435 Canadian dollars.