“The pound slumped to a 15-month low against the euro after the Bank of England minutes showed more officials voted to expand asset purchases at this month’s meeting, a policy that that typically debases a currency.
Sterling dropped to the lowest level since June versus the dollar after minutes of the central bank’s Feb. 7 meeting showed policy makers also considered an interest-rate cut. GovernorMervyn King and Paul Fisher joined David Miles in voting to increase the target for bond purchases by 25 billion pounds ($38.3 billion) to 400 billion pounds, though they were outvoted by the remaining six members of the Monetary Policy Committee. U.K. government bonds declined.
“The market clearly has sterling in the cross hairs,” said Gavin Friend, a foreign-exchange strategist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in London. “King and Fisher have joined Miles in voting for more quantitative easing and the market has thumped sterling on the back of that.”
The pound depreciated 0.8 percent to 87.50 pence per euro at 11:21 a.m. London time, and reached 87.65 pence, the weakest level since October 2011. Sterling fell 0.8 percent to $1.5308, after sliding to $1.5295, the lowest since June 1.
The vote marks the fourth time King, who is retiring in June and will be replaced by Mark Carney, has been outvoted as governor of the London-based central bank….”
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