Bank of England unanimous in freezing rates

LONDON: Bank of England policymakers voted 9-0 in September to keep interest rates at a record low 0.50 percent, minutes of the last meeting showed on Wednesday.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously for the second month in a row to keep the rate at 0.50 percent to support the nation's faltering economic recovery. Borrowing costs have stood at this level since March 2009.

Members voted 8-1 to refrain from pumping more cash into the economy, at the meeting which was held on September 7-8.

Between March 2009 and January 2010, the BoE injected £200 billion ($321 billion, 228 billion euros) into the British economy under a policy known as quantitative easing (QE), to aid recovery from recession.

The central bank added on Wednesday that MPC policymaker Adam Posen had voted at the September gathering to increase the asset purchase programme by £50 billion to a total of £250 billion.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011