Investing.com - The pound rose to the day’s highs on Monday after Bank of England policymaker Martin Weale said he was unsure if he would support an interest rate cut at the central bank’s August meeting.
GBP/USD rose 0.64% to 1.3265, coming off the lows of 1.3130 hit on Friday.
Weale said he would need to see firmer evidence of the impact of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union before supporting at rate cut at next month’s meeting.
“Uncertainty points to the argument that we should wait for firmer evidence before making any policy change,” he said.
“In contrast to the experience of 2008, I do not have any sense that either consumers or businesses are panic-struck and, as I observed, there have been no material signs of financial panic.”
The comments, which came during a speech in London, contrast with the view of most other BoE policymakers.
Last Thursday’s minutes of the BoE’s July meeting gave a clear indication the bank will ease monetary policy next month to counteract the negative economic shock from the Brexit vote.
The BoE kept interest rates on hold at 0.5% in a surprise decision.
On Friday, the BoE’s Chief Economist Andrew Haldane said the bank needs to act"promptly as well as muscularly" to shore up the economy and bolster confidence.
But monetary easing may not necessarily include a rate cut. The BoE could opt to boost quantitative easing or launch new measures to encourage lending.
The pound was also higher against the euro and the yen, with EUR/GBP down 0.39% at 0.8333 and GBP/JPY advancing 1.23% to 140.18.
The traditional safe haven yen weakened broadly on Monday as Turkey’s government regained control of the country in the wake of Friday’s failed coup attempt.
Safe haven assets had initially been bought up by investors on reports of the coup, but those trades were largely unwound on Monday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, eased 0.14% to 96.56.
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