The dollar regained some ground on Friday after a report showed U.S. real gross domestic product increased at a 5.9% seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the final three months of 2009, revised up from 5.7% estimated last month.

The U.S. economy grew slightly faster than previously reported in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department estimated Friday, but details of the revision to gross domestic product show final sales in the United States were actually weaker than reported a month ago.
In the third quarter, GDP rose at a 2.2% annual pace. GDP fell 6.4% in the first quarter of the year and 0.7% in the second quarter.

Nearly two thirds of the growth in GDP in the fourth quarter was accounted for by changes in inventories, not by final sales. Businesses had been reducing their overstocks at the fastest pace in generations earlier in the year, and then sharply slowed the pace of reductions in the fourth quarter. The slowdown accounted for most of the fourth-quarter growth.

Although GDP grew at the fastest pace in six years, final demand in the economy was tepid, rising 1.9% annualized, revised down from 2.2% earlier. Excluding exports, final sales to U.S. purchasers rose at a 1.6% annual rate.

The dollar index which measures the U.S. unit against a trade-weighted basket of rivals, traded at 80.692, compared to 80.744 in North American trade late Thursday.

The euro traded at $1.3569, slipping from $1.3593 before the data but still up slightly from $1.3554. Still to come is data on existing-home sales in January and a final reading on consumer confidence for this month

Crude futures traded little changed on Friday after the GDP data, crude oil for April delivery was up 2 cents to $78.19 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.