The Great Britain pound rose today as hawkish comments from policy makers led to speculations about interest rate hikes from the Bank of England in the foreseeable future.
Kristin Forbes, voting BoE member who will leave the Monetary Policy Committee at the end of this month, said in yesterday’s speech:
The âlift-offâ of UK interest rates should not be delayed any longer.
The day before, BoE Chief Economist Andy Haldane also made hawkish remarks.
The timing of the rate lift-off is hard to predict. Most analysts believe that it will not happen till the next year, though they do not rule out a hike this year.
It is important to remember that the rate hike is not guaranteed. Earlier this week, BoE Governor Mark Carney argued that it is not the time to raise interest rates.
GBP/USD rose from 1.2681 to 1.2723 as of 18:49 GMT today. GBP/JPY gained from 141.15 to 141.52. EUR/GBP was down from 0.8792 to 0.8763 but managed to rebound to 0.8802 later.
If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Great Britain Pound,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.