LONDON: Sterling drifted higher on Tuesday, but held within well established ranges, as investors stayed on the sidelines before comments from policymakers and data later in the week.
Sterling traded higher on the day at $1.2908, recovering from an intraday low of $1.2870.
It has weakened more than 1 percent since it hit a one-month high above $1.30 last week after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said a rise in interest rates was likely to be needed as the economy came close to running at full capacity.
BoE deputy governor Ben Broadbent is due to give a speech at 1230 GMT.
"We had a bit of a corrective move on the sterling recently but markets are broadly treading water before the speech and some key data tomorrow," said ING analyst Viraj Patel.
Wage data is due on Wednesday for the month of May. In nominal terms, wages grew at the slowest pace since February 2016, rising an annual 2.1 percent in the three months to April and slowing from 2.3 percent in the first quarter.
Market watchers will get fresh insights into the central bank's thinking later on Tuesday, with Broadbent and chief economist Andy Haldane making separate appearances.
Three policymakers voted last month for a rate rise, and both Carney and Haldane have said they could vote for a rate increase later this year.
With markets pricing in roughly a 50 percent probability of a quarter percentage point rate hike by year-end, strategists at RBC Capital Markets believe the weakness in the pound may have more room to run if policymakers, particularly Broadbent, adopts a cautious note.
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