By Colm Gilhooly

With the recent shocks over the UK national debt figures, rising unemployment, and the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policies this mornings Bank of England Minutes will provide an interesting pre-cursor to what the Monetary Policy Committee are likely to do at their next meeting in August.  Sterling actually rallied towards the begining of this month following the decision not to extend the quantitative easing policy (crudely put as printing money) by the expected £25bn, however recent comments by MPC members such as Kate Barker have suggested the policy will continue in August, and as such have dragged down exchange rates for the Pound.

Following the release of the Minutes, the Pound bounced back a touch against the Euro and the Dollar as the currency markets received the news that all 9 members of the MPC voted to keep the policy of QE on hold suggesting a wait and see approach.  With a lot of quarterly data due out in August the next meeting on the 6th August could be key for the health of Sterling- “to extend, or not to extend: that is the question:”- well at least it is if you are interested in currency rates.