LONDON: Sterling gave up some of its earlier gains against the dollar on Tuesday after the head of the Bank of England said he did not have a "set timetable" for raising interest rates and wanted to see stronger growth and inflation first.
In a pre-written speech to an audience at the University of London, Governor Mark Carney said global and domestic growth had proved weaker than he had expected in the middle of last year, when he predicted that a decision on when to raise interest rates would have come into "sharper relief" by early 2016.
Having earlier gained on the back of a slightly higher than expected print on inflation, sterling fell to $1.4262 after the speech was published, from around $1.43 before. That left it just 0.1 percent up on the day, having hit a 5-1/2-year low on Monday.
"Sterling just moved on those Carney comments - the dollar has bounced," said a senior trader with a bank in London.
Against the euro the pound also pared its gains, trading up 0.4 percent on the day at 76.20 pence, having traded around 75.95 pence just before the speech.
British long gilt futures pared losses after Carney's comments, rising around 15 ticks to stand 45 ticks down on the day.
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