Dec 30 Reuters The pound stood its ground in thinnedout holiday trading session on Monday and looked set to end the year as the best performing major currency against the relentlessly firming dollar.

Sterling was up 0.1 against the greenback at 1.2595.

The pound has fallen 1 versus the greenback since the Federal Reserve39;s Dec. 18 policy meeting, but has clawed back close to 0.5 since last Monday.

Trading has been thin over the past holidaylimited week, and is expected to remain subdued as the end of the year quickly approaches.

But sterling is still the G10 currency that has held up the best against the dollar this year, with expectations of a slow ratecut path from the Bank of England underpinning much of the currency39;s strength in 2024.

The BoE is in part an outlier because of sticky British inflation, and Goldman Sachs entitled its regular inflation monitor published late Sunday Progress towards controlling inflation resumes outside of the UK.

British inflation hit an eightmonth high in November, though the rise in services prices watched closely by the Bank of England as an underlying measure of inflationary pressures held steady, offering the central bank a little bit of relief.

But traders are wondering how long the BoE can remain an outlier amid a slowing British economy.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has asked regulators, including the financial and competition watchdogs, to remove barriers to growth in an effort to revive a sluggish economy,…