The GBP has been supported, mainly on the back of better than expected retail sales data. The BoE minutes did not surprise in terms of the voting outcome.
However, they still indicated that more officials may become more used to the idea of higher interest rates. Altogether we stick to the view that there is more room of rising BoE interest rate expectations to the benefit of the currency. This is especially true as low inflation risk has been used as a reason to keep a dovish monetary policy stance.
However, considering further improving UK growth prospects, price developments may increasingly stabilize.
As a result to the above outlined conditions we remain long GBP/USD as a trade recommendation, targeting a move above 1.70 over the coming few weeks.