Pound gains in foreign exchange trading on BOE minutes

The pound gained in trading on the foreign exchange markets today (September 23rd) following the release of minutes from this month's Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

Minutes indicating that the committee members were unanimous in their decision to not make any further changes to the programme of quantitative easing helped push the pound up, although government bonds fell, the Bloomberg news agency reports.

As well as not making any changes to the quantitative easing programme, the committee members were unanimous in their decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.5 per cent.

The spread between two and ten-year gilts is now at its widest level since 1992, the news provider notes, adding that investors have been turning to the relative security of shorter-dated gilts.

Strength in the pound's foreign exchange trading saw it achieve less than 90 p per euro for the first time since September 18th, while it also improved its position against the dollar.