Investing.com - The pound was steady against the dollar on Monday after the Bank of England kept monetary policy on hold at the conclusion of its two-day meeting, ahead of its quarterly inflation report on Wednesday.
GBP/USD was at 1.5474, little changed from around 1.5480 ahead of the announcement.
The BoE said it was keeping the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.50%, where it has been since March 2009, in a widely anticipated decision.
The central bank also maintained the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.
The bank did not publish any rate statement, but investors were looking ahead to Wednesday’s quarterly inflation report which would outline its forecasts for growth and inflation.
The announcement was delayed from Thursday because of Britain’s general election.
Sterling rallied to two-month highs on Friday after Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party won a surprise majority in parliamentary elections, easing concerns over lengthy coalition negotiations.
The pound remained higher against the broadly weaker euro, with EUR/GBP down 0.71% to 0.7379.
The single currency came under pressure ahead of talks between eurogroup finance ministers and Greece later in the day.
Athens is scrambling to reach an agreement on a package of economic reforms in order to access fresh bailout funds.
Ahead of the talks Greece’s government indicated that it was still hopeful that progress would be made but euro zone officials have indicated that too many issues still remain unresolved.
The dollar remained supported after data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in April, broadly in line with forecasts.
But March’s payrolls report was revised to show that only 85,000 jobs were created, the fewest since June 2012.
The data did little to alter expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep rates on hold at current record lows until later in the year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.35% to 95.23, off last week’s two-month trough of 93.96.