NEW YORK, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index surged against other major currencies in late trading on Thursday, as the European Central Bank (ECB) pledged to leave interest rates unchanged until mid-2019.

The ECB announced Thursday it would taper is asset purchases further to 15 billion euros (17.4 U.S. dollars) a month from 30 billion euros (34.8 U.S. dollars) at the moment come October, before the quantitative easing program will likely conclude in December. Interest rates will meanwhile remain at their ultralow levels at least until summer next year.

The U.S. dollar also got supports from the country's strong economic reports.

The Commerce Department said Thursday U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 percent in May, well above market expectations. That also marked the biggest gain in retail sales since November.

"Second quarter consumption is tracking more than 4 percent growth, the strongest since the fourth quarter of 2014. Last year's tax cuts are probably a factor, but the recovery of the shale oil business is even bigger," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Meanwhile, in the week ending June 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 218,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 222,000, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 1.32 percent at 94.783 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro was down to 1.1593 dollars from 1.1773 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.3282 dollars from 1.3358 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar dipped to 0.7485 dollar from 0.7550 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 110.58 Japanese yen, higher than 110.52 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9964 Swiss franc from 0.9859 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3101 Canadian dollars from 1.3000 Canadian dollars. Enditem