On Wednesday sterling regained ground after the minutes of the Bank of
England’s April meeting indicated there is an improved chance
that inflation could bounce back more strongly in 2015.
GBP/USD was up 0.54% to 1.5011 from around 1.4938 ahead of the minutes. The minutes of the BoE’s latest monetary policy meeting showed that
policymakers voted nine to zero in favor of keeping rates unchanged at a
record low 0.5%, but the decision remained “finely balanced” for two
officials.
Sterling rose against the euro, with EUR/GBP easing to 0.7189.
The Bank of England said it still expects that inflation could become negative in the next couple of months, after being flat in February and March.
It also added that the stronger pound could have had a more rapid than expected effect on inflation, indicating that inflation could recover more strongly when temporary downward pressures on prices eased.
The BoE also said the euro zone economy appeared to be recovering more strongly than thought.
"Although it was too early to be confident, a succession of firmer data suggested that growth in the euro area economy was picking up," the BoE said.
In the meantime, the greenback was lower, with the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, down 0.49% to 97.73.
