The pound traded near the highest level in nine months against the dollar before policymakers from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England meet to decide on interest rates and quantitative-easing measures this week. The British currency weakened from near a one-month high against the euro before a report that’s forecast to show U.K. manufacturing grew at a slower pace in October. The Fed is likely to start a fresh round of unorthodox stimulus tomorrow by announcing a plan to purchase at least $500 billion of long-term securities, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The BOE will keep its asset-purchase target unchanged on Nov. 4, a separate survey showed. “We’re in a holding pattern until the Fed decision tomorrow,” said Daragh Maher, deputy head of global foreign- exchange strategy at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in London. “If the package is bigger than expected then the pound should push higher, but if it’s relatively small then sterling could drop back.” The pound rose 0.2 percent to $1.6071 as of 8:47 a.m. in London and weakened the same amount to 86.85 pence per euro. Sterling climbed 0.3 percent to 129.44 yen. U.K. government bonds were little changed, with the 10-year gilt yield staying at 3.04 percent and the two-year yield at 0.69 percent. The U.K. plans to sell 4 billion pounds of 2 percent notes maturing in January 2016 today. To contact the reporters on this story: Matthew Brown in London at mbrown42@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

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