Bank of England policymakers split at rate meeting: minutes

The British central bank's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) froze the key lending rate at 0.50 percent after their meeting on November 3-4, and decided against expanding its quantitative easing (QE) bond-buying scheme.

However, policymaker Adam Posen called for the BoE to inject another 50 billion pounds to support economic recovery, while his colleague Andrew Sentance voted for a quarter-point interest rate hike to curb inflation.

But the majority of MPC members agreed to maintain the current status quo on monetary policy amid the uncertain outlook for inflation and economic growth.

"Most members felt that the balance of risks had not altered decisively and that the right action at this meeting was to maintain the current, highly expansionary, stance of monetary policy," the minutes read.

The bank had forecast last week that the British economy would avoid a double-dip recession, despite the impact of the government's severe deficit-slashing austerity measures.

The BoE had also predicted that 12-month inflation was forecast to hold above the bank's target of 2.0 percent next year, after the looming taxation hike, but would fall below this level from by the end of 2012.

"The near-term inflation outlook was more elevated ... reflecting in part recent increases in non-energy commodity prices and news about utility prices," the minutes added. "But the outlook for inflation further ahead remained unusually uncertain."

The central bank had launched its own QE policy in March 2009 in an attempt to drag Britain out of a deep recession sparked by the global financial crisis.

Under the radical scheme, which ended earlier this year, the bank created some 200 billion pounds (228 billion euros, $321 billion) of new money by purchasing government bonds and high-quality private sector assets.

Separately on Wednesday, official data showed that Britain's unemployment rate held at 7.7 percent in the three months to the end of September, compared with the three months to August.

The number of unemployed people fell by 9,000 in the three months to the end of September to reach 2.4 million, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

The so-called claimant count of people registered for unemployment benefits sank by 3,700 last month to reach 1.47 million. That was the first monthly drop since July.

"The minutes of November's MPC meeting and the latest labour market figures tell us little new about the monetary policy debate," added Capital Economics analyst Jonathan Loynes.

"The MPC remains in wait and see mode until clearer signals on the economy's likely path emerge."