Tomorrow the Bank of England will publish the minutes of its Monetary Policy Committee’s meeting that will take place on February 10. BoE official Adam Posen will speak today at 5 p.m. Andrew Sentence, David Miles, Charles Bean and Martin Weale will also speak this week.

The MPC members have different views on the suitable monetary policy, but the tone of the central bank seems to turn more hawkish, so the market wonders if Sentance and Weale who propose to lift up the benchmark rate have been joined by a third member.

Economists at BNP Paribas say that if the minutes show a third official voted for an increase, the market will have no more doubts about the coming rate hike from the current 0.5% level. In their view, although the rate increase will make it harder for the British economy to recover, it won’t completely derail the rebound.

Analysts at Standard & Poor’s believe that the MPC will take more time to make out how strong economic growth will be in the first half of the year. However, the specialists added that as this is the question of credibility for the BoE’s ability to fight inflation, UK central bank will increase rates by autumn or even sooner.



Chart. H4 GBP/USD

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