SINGAPORE, May 9 Reuters The dollar crept higher on Tuesday after a survey showed U.S. credit conditions were less gloomy than expected, while the pound flirted with a oneyear peak on expectations the Bank of England will raise interest rates this week.

Data showing China39;s imports contracted sharply in April from a year earlier while exports grew more slowly than in March, had little impact on currencies.

The offshore yuan slipped 0.1 to 6.9282 per U.S. dollar and the onshore yuan similarly fell about 0.1 to 6.9218 per dollar.

There were doubts that last month39;s strong trade figures could be sustained, and so far that seems to be the case, said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index.

That can feed into concerns of lower growth, especially when accompanied with the softer PMI figures for April.

Last month, China39;s official PMI showed manufacturing activity unexpectedly shrank in April, in another sign of the country39;s struggling economic recovery following COVID.

The Australian dollar rose a slight 0.03 to 0.6783, creeping towards Monday39;s roughly threeweek top of 0.6804.

The kiwi slipped 0.08 to 0.6340, but was not far from its onemonth high of 0.63585 hit the day earlier.

Both currencies are often seen as liquid proxies for the Chinese yuan.

There39;s a bit of a nice recovery in the progrowth currencies, because markets have become a little bit more of the view that there39;s a slowdown, but not necessarily a recession coming. And…