Sterling fell around 40 pips to hit a session low of $1.6283 against the dollar. The euro rose around 25 pips to a session high of 87.12 pence.

June gilt futures briefly pared gains by ten ticks after the minutes to trade at 117.97, having stood at 118.07 before the release.

Britain's FTSE 100 extended gains after the minutes, up 0.2 percent at 5,772.40 points by 0933 GMT.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee maintained its 6-3 split in favour of keeping rates on hold this month, seeing no major change in the medium-term outlook, minutes to its March 9-10 meeting showed on Wednesday.