The pound weakened against the euro and erased its gain against the dollar after the minutes of the Bank of England’s March 7-8 meeting showed two policy makers voted to add more stimulus to the economy. Britain’s currency depreciated 0.4 percent to 83.67 pence per euro at 9:35 a.m. London time. It was little changed at $1.5854, after advancing as much as 0.4 percent to $1.5923. Policy makers Adam Posen and David Miles wanted to increase the target for bond purchases by 25 billion pounds to 350 billion pounds, the minutes showed. The seven remaining members voted to keep the current 325 billion-pound target. The Monetary Policy Committee also voted 9-0 to hold the benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent. Britain’s budget deficit almost doubled in February as taxes fell and spending surged, a separate report showed. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Charlton in London at echarlton1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

Source