Last week’s meeting minutes from the MPC revealed that there’s one more member, Martin Weale, that is supportive of a rate hike. Weale joined Sentance that has voted for a hike for quite a long time.
But Weale’s vote came before the horrible GDP figure which showed that the British economy squeezed by 0.5% in Q4, totally different from the expectations for further growth.
Weale said this:
“But were the recent weakness to mark the start of a sustained new downturn, inflationary pressures would be likely to fade without a bank rate increase.” … “This is alarming — a faltering economic recovery implies human misery and a waste of resources — but not surprising,” he said.
So, the case for a rate hike in Britain is weakening, despite the high inflation.
For technical levels, see the GBP USD forecast.