Sterling firmed against the dollar and euro on Thursday after the Bank of England raised interest rates by 25 basis points and made upbeat comments about the economy in its statement. Forty-five out of 46 analysts polled by last week predicted the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee would raise the benchmark lending rate to 4.25 percent, while the BoE said afterwards that inflationary pressures were likely to build despite the higher level of sterling. "The decision was what pretty much everyone had expected. The BoE made an overall upbeat statement and that is marginally positive for sterling," said David Mann, currency strategist at Standard Chartered. "We see more rate hikes coming over the next quarter and the prospect of more rate increases is good news for sterling." By 1108 GMT, sterling rose to the day's high $1.7975 from 1.7934 just before the announcement. Against the euro it strengthened to 67.56 pence from 67.70 pence just before the announcement.|||