Article by ForexTime
The British pound was given a much needed boost from a four-month trough on Wednesday after a surprisingly more hawkish Bank of England minutes from the latest policy meeting in early August.
The voting results of the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) showed that two members, Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty both voted to begin raising interest rates in August. This was the first time in three years that not all members voted against raising rates.
The news took markets by surprise and pushed investors to be more bullish on the pound as their expectations for the first rate hike has been brought forward.
Most analysts predicted that it would be another unanimous vote against a rate hike. This was due to the fact that last week’s Quarterly Inflation Report from the Bank of England, which was perceived to be dovish, would suggest the BoE was under less pressure to start raising rates.
Today’s news however pushed up sterling to a high of $1.6680 from four-month low of $1.6602 earlier in the day.
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