The BoE held the key interest rate at the current low of 0.5%, as lone hawk Ian McCafferty dropped his call for a rate hike for the first time in six meetings.The bank said economic conditions have deteriorated in three months since its November quarterly inflation report, noting that the U.K. economy is not growing as fast as expected.
“Global growth has fallen back further over the past three months, as emerging economies have generally continued to slow and as the US economy has grown by less than expected,” the bank said.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.83% to 96.44, the lowest level since October 23.
The dollar fell sharply on Wednesday after weak U.S. service sector data and dovish Fed comments prompted investors to trim back expectations on the timing of further rate hikes.
Data on Thursday showed that initial jobless claims rose by a larger-than-forecast 8,000 to 285,000 last week, but remained in territory usually associated with a firming labor market.
The Canadian dollar rose to the highest level in two months against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as uncertainty over how much the Federal Reserve will be able to raise interest rates this year pressured the greenback lower.
USD/CAD was down 0.91% to 1.3654, the weakest level since December 11
