The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to hold its key lending rate steady at a record low 0.5% on July 7, according to minutes of the meeting released Wednesday, marking no change to the voting pattern seen in June.
MPC members Spencer Dale and Martin Weale both dissented in favor of a quarter-point rate hike, citing worries inflation pressures and fears inflation expectations would become entrenched.
The majority, however, found it likely that the current round of economic weakness would persist for longer than previously thought.
Combined with subdued earnings growth, the economic weakness "reinforced the case that inflation was likely to fall back" once temporary factors that had pushed it up waned, the minutes said.
The committee voted 8-1 to hold its asset purchase program unchanged at 200 billion pounds ($322.1 billion), with MPC member Adam Posen repeating his call to expand the program. Posen argued that the economy still carried a "significant margin of spare capacity" and that inflation was likely to fall below the central bank's target of 2% in the medium term, the minutes said.
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