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Britons enjoy few things more than stripping off their jumpers and declaring it the hottest summer on record at the merest glint of August sunshine. Ooh look! Sunlight! Who needs holidays abroad, eh? Alas, however, British summers almost always turn out to be grim, to the sad disappointment of the optimistic souls who had booked themselves into camping holidays on the south coast. It looks like something similar has been going on with the U.K. economic outlook, and the pound. A dose of decent U.K. economic data earlier this week had made some brave currencies traders believe the country was bouncing back. Even despite the grisly gross domestic product reading for the U.K. less than a week ago, some had come to think that the Bank of England might not need to continue pumping money into the economy after all. Or at least, it might trim its purchases. The pound duly edged up to a fresh high for the year, just above $1.70. Sadly, the Bank of England ended up casting a dark shadow over that view Thursday. It wasn't entirely gloomy in its assessment of the U.K. economy. But in choosing to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5%, and, moreover, in boosting its plans for bond purchases by a surprising amount, it rumbled the market's optimism, and the pound's strength. "The U.K. still has a long way to go, and that's what the bank is reacting to," said Geoffrey Kendrick, a currencies analyst at UBS in London. Kendrick said the pound had gained a good deal of support of late from its close correlation with banking stocks. As they had climbed, and the global outlook had brightened, the pound had moved up. Optimism over the U.K. economy had helped it higher. But that optimism now appears to have been misplaced. Some traders and economists may have been feeling positive, but the Bank of England, which clearly knows about these things, didn't agree. It now appears that the economy is going to recover much more slowly and much later than many had predicted, dragging the pound down. Still, optimism can be a resilient thing. Daragh Maher, a senior currencies analyst at French bank Calyon in London, has been bullish on sterling for several months. Even taking Thursday's statement by the Bank of England into account, he thinks the pound is heading up to $1.75 by the end of the year. Indeed, if anything, the extension to quantitative easing should be viewed as supportive to the U.K. economy and the currency. "The central bank has again shown a willingness to act to ensure the recovery can gain traction and get inflation back on target in the medium term," he said. "This, in turn, should make the market more not less confident about recovery and ultimately drive sterling higher. The BOE has simply provided a better level to start buying sterling afresh," he added. Overnight the pound and the major currencies kept within a tight range ahead of the looming U.S. non-farm payrolls report for July, where the market is expecting around 350,000 job losses. At 0630 GMT, sterling was at $1.6770, unchanged from late levels in New York Thursday. The euro is worth $1.4355, unchanged, and the dollar was at Y95.40, also unchanged from levels seen late Thursday.