The pound strengthened against the dollar, rising from a more than three-week low reached yesterday, before the Bank of England announces its latest decision on monetary policy. Sterling slipped to the weakest level versus the euro in almost two weeks. The Bank of England will keep its asset- purchase target at 375 billion pounds ($604 billion) today, according to all 40 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. It will also leave its key interest rate at a record low 0.5 percent, according to all 50 estimates in a separate survey. The decision will be announced at 12 p.m. in London. The pound rose 0.2 percent to $1.6112 as of 7:47 a.m. London time, after falling to $1.6067 yesterday, the lowest level since Sept. 12. Sterling dropped less than 0.1 percent to 80.30 pence per euro, after touching 80.35 pence, the weakest since Sept. 20. The pound has strengthened 0.9 percent in the past three months, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-market currencies. The euro also gained 0.9 percent, while the dollar weakened 2.7 percent. Gilts returned 3.5 percent this year through yesterday, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German bonds gained 3.2 percent and U.S. Treasuries earned 2.4 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: David Goodman in London at dgoodman28@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

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