- EUR/GBP failed to hold above 0.9000 following BoE policy decision.
- Bank of England expanded the QE program by £100 billion as expected.
- GBP gathers strength against its rivals as BoE refrains from mentioning negative rates.
The EUR/GBP pair climbed to a daily high of 0.9015 during the European session but lost its traction in the last hour. As of writing, the pair was trading at 0.8983, still gaining 0.35% on a daily basis.
BoE helps GBP gather strength
At its June monetary policy meeting, the Bank of England (BoE) decided to leave its policy rate unchanged at 0.1% as expected. Additionally, the BoE announced that it expanded the quantitative easing (QE) program by £100 billion to £745 billion.
However, the BoE refrained from touching on the possible use of negative interest rates and provided a boost to the British pound. Reflecting the broad GBP strength, the GBP/USD pair spiked to a daily high of 1.2550 before returning to 1.2500 area.
Assessing the BoE’s policy statement, “the BoE provided help to the government and the economy, but probably fell short of expectations – and of what is needed as the country struggles to return to normal from COVID-19 and amid Brexit uncertainty,” said FXStreet analyst Yohay Elam.
There won’t be any other macroeconomic data releases that could impact the pair’s action in the remainder of the day. Friday’s economic docket will feature Retail Sales data from the UK.
Technical levels to watch for