London

THE pound jumped on Wednesday after a Bank of England (BOE) policymaker said that he expected to back an interest rate hike this year while commodity-linked currencies such as the Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone took a hit on declining oil prices.

BOE chief economist Andy Haldane said that he was likely to back an increase in interest rates in the second half of this year, which saw sterling surge by almost half a US cent, briefly trading above US$1.27 and reversing a drop below US$1.26 earlier.