Investing.com - The pound traded lower against the dollar on Friday, as investors shrugged off U.K. borrowing data and stuck with the greenback on expectations that monetary policy will tighten in the U.S. in roughly a year.
In U.S. trading on Friday, GBP/USD was trading at 1.6491, down 0.08%, up from a session low of 1.6476 and off a high of 1.6520.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6383, the low from Feb. 10, and resistance at 1.6568, Thursday's high.
Data released earlier revealed that U.K. public sector net borrowing rose by £7.5 billion in February, short of expectations for an increase of £8.6 billion, after a £6.4 billion decline the previous month, though investors shrugged off the data.
The dollar continued to see support against its U.K. counterpart after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested at a Wednesday press conference that interest rates could rise six months after the Fed's bond-buying program ends, which is widely seen taking place this fall.
Fed asset purchases, currently set at $55 billion a month, aim to stimulate the economy by suppressing interest rates, weakening the dollar as long as they remain in effect, and Yellen's comments left many expecting benchmark interest rates to begin rising around the first half of 2015.
Profit-taking trimmed some of the dollar's gains, however, as investors took on risk in the form of equities and higher-yielding currencies.
Elsewhere on Friday, Fitch Ratings affirmed U.S. long-term foreign and local currency credit ratings at AAA with a stable outlook, taking the country off negative ratings watch.
Sterling was down against the euro, with EUR/GBP up 0.18% at 0.8364, and down against the yen, with GBP/JPY down 0.19% at 168.68.