THE peso continued its rally against the dollar on Friday as traders positioned ahead of the release of US economic growth data by selling the greenback.

The local currency closed the week at P51.055 a dollar, up from P51.11 on Thursday. It opened the session at P51.20 a dollar, slid to as low as P51.21 and closed at its intraday high.

Trading volume climbed to $859.34 million from the $831.85 million.

“We saw strong dollar selling the whole day,” a trader said. “This is due to covering of position ahead of gross domestic growth data tonight from the US.”

The US economy likely expanded by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to a Bloomberg poll, from 3.1% a quarter earlier, dragged by trade tensions with China and tempered by strong consumer demand.

Another trader said the peso strengthened after the European Central Bank (ECB) said there was no risk of recession despite its broadly dovish tone last night. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

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