FOREX-Dollar records best week in 1-1/2 months on strong data

(New throughout)
By Kate Duguid
NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The dollar recorded its best
week since early November after a series of strong U.S. economic
data releases that make a near-term cut in interest rates
unlikely.
U.S. growth nudged up in the third quarter, the government
confirmed on Friday, and there are signs the economy maintained
the moderate pace of expansion as the year ended, supported by a
strong labor market.
Gross domestic product increased at a 2.1% annualized rate,
the Commerce Department said on Friday in its third estimate of
third-quarter GDP. That was unrevised from November's estimate
in line with economists' expectations. Consumer spending was
stronger than previously reported, and there were upgrades to
business spending. Earlier this week, the U.S. reported that the domestic
homebuilding market was regaining steam and the manufacturing
sector was stabilizing. That has driven the dollar index .DXY
up 0.56% this week. It was last up 0.35% on the day to 97.724.
The GDP and personal consumption figures are "indicators of
the strength of the economy going into 2020," wrote analysts at
Western Union Business Solutions. These figures "further
strengthen the belief that the Federal Reserve will pause on
interest rate cuts for the near future," they wrote.
Sterling was slightly stronger on the day after a bad week
that has seen it take a beating from renewed concern over a hard
Brexit. After hitting a 19-month high against the dollar last
week on the back of Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson's
electoral victory in Britain, the currency dropped when the new
prime minister revived the possibility that Britain could leave
the European Union without a trade agreement.
The pound GBP= was last 0.03% stronger against the dollar,
at $1.301, and up 0.48% against the euro EURGBP= at 0.851
pence. Nevertheless, the currency was set for its worst week
against the greenback in over two years, and its largest weekly
loss since July 2017 versus the euro.
More than three years since Britain voted to exit the
European Union in a 2016 referendum, Johnson's government will
leave the EU at the end of January and has set December 2020 as
a hard deadline to reach a trade agreement. In thin pre-holiday trade, the euro weakened by 0.43% to
$1.107 EUR= , while the Japanese yen was 0.11% weaker against
the dollar at 109.48 yen JPY= .