The US dollar hit its highest in over five weeks against a basket of major currencies on Friday, a day after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she expected the central bank to hike rates in 2015, and after US growth data appeared to support such a move.
In a speech late Thursday, a week after the Fed delayed a long-anticipated rate hike, Yellen said she and other US central bank policymakers do not expect recent global economic and financial market developments to significantly affect policy.
The comments surprised analysts since the Fed kept interest rates unchanged partly in a bow to worries about the global economy.
"The Yellen remarks yesterday were indeed a fairly elaborate attempt to explain why rates will go up before the end of the year," said David Gilmore, partner at Foreign Exchange Analytics in Essex, Connecticut.
Commerce Department data on Friday showed US gross domestic product rose at a 3.9 percent annual pace in the second quarter, up from 3.7 percent reported last month.
The data supported the case that the US economy may be able to withstand a rate hike.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, hit 96.700 after the GDP data, its highest since August 19. The index was on track for a weekly gain of about 1.4 percent, its strongest since mid-July.
The dollar hit its highest in over two weeks against the Japanese yen of 121.240 yen.
The greenback hit a more than six-week high against the Swiss franc of 0.98420 franc earlier in the session. While the euro slipped against the dollar after two straight days of gains, it remained within recent ranges and did not break below a more than two-week low of $1.11050 touched on September 23.
Lingering skepticism surrounding the view that the Fed would hike rates this year capped the dollar's gains, analysts said. "The theme is indecision," said David Rodriguez, senior strategist at FXCM in New York.
The euro was last down 0.35 percent against the dollar at $1.11910. The dollar was up 0.37 percent against the yen at 120.550 yen. The dollar was up 0.47 percent against the franc at 0.97985 franc.
The dollar index was last up 0.26 percent at 96.230.