British pound down to session low versus US dollar after BoE minutes

British pound lowered against the US dollar to session low on Wednesday after the results from Bank of Englands meeting in June were announced.

GBP/USD pair fell down to 1.5615 during early European session, after which consolidation followed at 1.5621. The cross was down by 0.13% for the day. Support was expected at Tuesdays low, 1.5564, while resistance was to be met at Tuesdays high, 1.5722.

Earlier today it became clear that outgoing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King did not succeed in his intentions to increase scale of stimulus at the time of his last vote on the central banks monetary policy. Mervyn King and two other policymakers voted in favor of increasing stimulus by additional 25 billion GBP in order to support economic growth. Their arguments encompassed the benefits for production sector and the risk, posed by the ongoing crisis in the Euro zone. Bank of England minutes also showed that the majority of policymakers found the current monetary policy course appropriate. All 9 members voted for keeping the base interest rate intact at the 0.50% level, while as far as financial stimulus scale was concerned, 6 policymakers voted for keeping the scale at current 375-billion GBP level and 3 for introducing additional stimulus.

On the other hand, FED Chairman Ben Bernanke said on May 22nd that the central bank could reduce the scale of its monthly purchases if US employment outlook was to show sustainable improvement. The Fed will pare asset purchases to 65 billion USD at its October 29-30th meeting, according to a Bloomberg News survey in June.

The pound edged lower against the euro, as EUR/GBP pair moved up by 0.11% to 0.8569.