What’s been happening? Pound Sterling weakened yesterday, despite a more confident outlook for interest rates from the Bank of England. Governor Mark Carney and policymakers Ben Broadbent, Andy Haldane, and Silvana Tenreyro speaking at an event in London suggested that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would now need to hike interest rates three times in as many years. Just a few weeks ago policymakers had stated that there would likely need to be only two interest rate hikes between now and the end of 2020. This more confident attitude failed to boost the pound, however, with markets disappointed that Carney refused to be pinned down about when the first interest rate hike might come, leaving questions hanging over bets of a May rate hike. GBP/EUR slipped lower yesterday, despite the euro being on poor form itself thanks to a run of worse-than-expected February PMIs for France, Germany, and the Eurozone as a whole. Meanwhile, GBP/USD weakened as markets awaited the evening’s meeting minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The minutes proved that policymakers were feeling more confident at the latest gathering, revising up their growth and inflation predictions and suggesting that further rate hikes were still necessary to help keep the economy on track. Some in the markets interpreted the latest minutes as attempting to signal that the Fed was aiming for the expected three rate hikes this year, but there was plenty to support bets of four rounds of tightening. | 
