THE pound has risen back above $1.50, after newly-published minutes of the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting suggested interest rate-setters were weighing whether inflation might pick up more quickly than forecast.

Sterling hit an intra-day high of around $1.5080, its best level in about five weeks against the US currency, after publication of minutes of the Bank of England committee's April 8 and 9 meeting.

At 5pm, the pound was trading around $1.5023, up more than three-quarters of a cent on its closing level in London on Tuesday.

The pound has risen sharply against the euro in recent times. And sterling strength tends to put downward pressure on inflation.

However, signalling a view on the MPC that much of this downward impact might have fed through already, the minutes state: "It was possible that the appreciation of sterling was feeding through more quickly into the CPI (consumer prices index) than expected. That could mean less downward pressure on prices to come, and a faster pick-up in inflation when the effects of recent falls in energy and food prices dropped out of the annual comparison."

The latest official figures have put annual UK consumer prices index inflation at zero.

The minutes also show MPC members discussed continuing weakness of wages in the UK at their latest meeting.

Setting out their discussion of this issue, the minutes state: "A further pick-up in wage inflation would be necessary for labour cost growth to be consistent with meeting the target [of two per cent for annual CPI inflation] in the medium term."

All nine MPC members voted to hold UK base rates at their record low of 0.5 per cent and maintain the scale of the stimulatory quantitative easing programme at £375 billion two weeks ago.