The pound posted a one cent gain against the euro yesterday, buoyed by the MPC minutes

Sterling reached a one-month high against the single currency, rallying strongly as the BoE’s latest policy meeting made no mention of further QE.

• The MPC minutes gave substantial support to the pound, which advanced 1.1% to reach a high of 1.1112, after they sounded a more positive tone than recent statements from policymakers suggested.
  
• It was revealed that the nine member committee had voted unanimously to leave the size of its asset purchase scheme unchanged at £175 billion, as had been widely expected, and made no direct reference to extending QE in the future.
  
• This perhaps suggests that the more positive macro news flow and the strength in asset prices may be moving the committee towards favouring a pause in quantitative easing at their November meeting.
  
• Later in the day, the pound capped its gains, consolidating below 1.11, with investors now awaiting retail data released today at 09:30BST.
  
• In addition, analysts noted that the eagerly awaited GDP figure on Friday could call a sharp halt to sterling’s recent rally should it fail to meet expectations of a 0.1% growth rate.