Sterling hits three-week high against dollar

Sterling rose against the dollar in American trade to the highest since November 2, following a basket of data from Britain and the US, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's minutes for the meeting held at the start of November. 

As of 05:48 GMT, GBP/USD rose 0.41% to 1.3293 from the opening of 1.3239, with an intraday low at 1.3214, and a three-week high at 1.3296. 

Earlier UK data included the Autumn projections from the British  Budget Administration office, which put the growth rate this year at 1.5%, down from 2.0% in previous forecasts, while cutting it to 1.4% next year and 1.3% in 2019. 

The report revised productivity forecasts downward as well, while expecting the borrowing rate to settle at 39 billion pounds in 2018, the lowest in two decades. 

The office expected the budget deficit in 2018-2019 to be less than 2% from GDP, while expecting inflation to hit a peak before the end of the year. 

On another note, UK treasury secretary Philip Hammond said ahead of the Parliament during his presentation of the new budget that Brexit talks will form a crucial phase in the British economic history, noting that the government has put aside 30 billion pounds for Brexit fees. 

Otherwise, earlier US data showed durable goods order fell 1.2% in October, missing expectations of a 0.4% rise, and compared to September's 2.0% rise, while core orders, excluding transportation, rose 0.4% in line with expectations, while down from September's 0.7% growth. 

US unemployment claims fell to 239 thousand in the week ending November 18, besting expectations of a drop to 241K, and compared to the previous reading's 252K, revised higher from 249K. 

The University of Michigan's final reading of the Consumer Sentiment survey rose to 98.5 from the preliminary reading of 97.8, compared to 100.7 in October, while the economic conditions and outlook indicators fell, as inflation outlook varied for one and five-year terms. 

Later today, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its last policy meeting, at which policymakers voted to hold interest rates unchanged between 1.00% and 1.2%, while pointing to strong US growth and improvement in the labor sector, and downplaying concerns about the recent hurricanes that hit the US, and asserting their work to normalize the balance sheet, a process which started in October.