The pound strengthened for a second day against the euro before the Bank of England announces whether it will expand its monetary stimulus for the first time in four months. Sterling approached the strongest level in five weeks against the 17-nation currency as a Bloomberg News survey showed 35 out of 45 economists expected Bank of England policy makers to maintain their asset-purchase target at 375 billion pounds ($600 billion) today. The central bank increased its bond purchases, or so-called quantitative easing, by 50 billion pounds in July to boost the economy which emerged in the third quarter from its first double-dip recession since the 1970s. The pound rose 0.1 percent to 79.83 pence per euro at 7:41 a.m. London time, after appreciating to 79.72 pence yesterday, the strongest level since Oct. 1. Sterling was little changed at $1.5986. The pound gained 1.6 percent this year according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-market currencies. The euro fell 3.2 percent, while the dollar dropped 1.6 percent. Gilts have returned 3.2 percent this year through yesterday, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German bonds gained 3.9 percent and U.S. Treasuries earned 2.3 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Neal Armstrong in London at narmstrong8@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

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