LONDON, June 20: The pound stayed well above $1.99 on Wednesday and hit multi-year highs against the yen, consolidating its strength after minutes from the Bank of England's last rate-setting meeting fuelled expectations for higher interest rates.

In other late European trading, the euro edged lower to $1.3425, from $1.3426 late on Tuesday in New York.

The dollar gained to 123.59 yen, from 123.33 yen late Tuesday.

Four out of the nine members on the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee voted for a hike in June, making the decision to hold a far closer one than markets had believed.

It also led analysts to predict that a further quarter point hike to 5.75 per cent would come at the very next meeting in July.

“The writing is on the wall for a hike next month and the tightening bias should stay intact for rates heading to 6 per cent later this year,” analysts at Bear Stearns said.

The pound hit a 13-day high of 1.9939 against the dollar and a week high of 0.6729 per euro after the minutes were released, and remained close to those levels as the day progressed.—AFP