Investing.com - The pound rose to three-week highs against the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of England revised up its forecast for growth this year and indicated that it may raise rates as soon as next year.
GBP/USD hit 1.6646, the highest since January 24 and was last up 0.26% to 1.6638.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6550 and near-term resistance at 1.6667, the high of January 24 and a 32-month high.
Sterling strengthened after the BoE raised its U.K. economic growth forecast for 2014 to 3.4% from 2.8% on Wednesday.
The bank also updated its forward guidance on bank rates, saying it will not raise rates until the spare capacity in the U.K. economy has been fully absorbed, which it does not see happening until 2015.
Investors were awaiting a report on U.S. retail sales, due out later in the day, amid concerns that sales slumped in January after a 0.2% rise in December. Recent weak jobs reports have raised concerns over whether the U.S. recovery has lost momentum form the end of last year.
Sterling was also stronger against the euro, with EUR/GBP dipping 0.05% to 0.8184, not far from the one-year lows of 0.8167 reached on January 22.
The single currency fell more than 1% against the broadly stronger pound on Wednesday after Wednesday after European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said in an interview with Reuters that the bank is considering a negative deposit rate very seriously.