Pound Drops After BOE Stands Pat

The pound declined in midday trade on Thursday after the Bank of England, as expected, made no changes to its monetary policy at its October meeting. Sterling dropped to $1.5316, down from around $1.5344 ahead of the rate decision and below the $1.5318 recorded late Wednesday in New York. The U.K. central bank's Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to keep its key lending rate at record low of 0.5%, where it has stood since March 2009. The MPC voted unanimously to keep its 375 billion pound ($574.54 billion) quantitative-easing program unchanged. "With inflation below the target, and the likelihood that at least some spare capacity remains in the economy, the MPC intends to set monetary policy so as to ensure that growth is sufficient to absorb any remaining underutilized resources," the committee said in the minutes, published alongside the rate decision. "That will support domestic cost growth and is necessary to ensure that inflation is on track to return sustainably to the 2% target rate within two years," it said.