LONDON, March 19 Reuters The pound was steady on Friday, edging up slightly against the dollar and flat against the euro, a day after a Bank of England meeting that gave sterling traders little reason to change from their generally bullish outlook.

Sterling has gained more than 2 so far this year against the dollar and 4.3 versus the euro, which analysts say is largely due to Britains success in rolling out COVID19 vaccines and relief that a lastminute Brexit trade deal was reached at the end of 2020.

The Bank of England kept its interest rates and 895 billion pound bondbuying programme unchanged, as expected.

It said that Britains economic recovery was gathering pace but policymakers were split over the prospects for longerterm improvement.

The pound initially slipped after the BoE meeting, but remained on track for a weekly gain against the euro. It was set for a net weekly loss of around 0.1 against the dollar.

At 0853 GMT on Friday, sterling was at 1.3950, up 0.1 on the day. Versus the euro it was little changed, at 85.475 pence per euro.

We are unperturbed by the modest underperformance in GBP following the MPC rate decision, wrote BofA FX strategists in a note to clients. We are about to enter the most positive cyclical month for the pound in April as the economy begins to reopen.

The only nearterm cloud on the horizon as we see it is developments in the vaccination rollout process where we keep a watching brief.

Earlier in the week, Britain said that it…