The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee was split again this month over its decision to leave interest rates steady for the fourth month running, with three of the nine members voting for another rate cut.
Minutes of the BoE's June meeting published on today showed that Ms Kate Barker, Ms Marian Bell and Mr Stephen Nickell voted for a 25 basis point rate cut.
But they were outgunned by the other six including Governor Sir Edward George, who was attending his last meeting, governor-designate Mr Mervyn King and new external MPC member Mr Richard Lambert. Last month the committee was split 5-4 against cutting rates as the outgoing external member Mr Chris Allsopp also voted for an easing in borrowing costs.
The minutes showed the committee agreed that overall there was little new economic news either way since its May meeting though sterling's fall in the days before that meeting had not been quickly reversed.
"The world economy was perhaps a little softer than it had appeared to be a month ago: while the US recovery was broadly on track, the euro area seemed weaker than projected," it said.
The three members who voted for an immediate rate reduction argued that the short-term risks to the British economy seemed to be crystallising, particularly as exports were not rebounding as expected and had shown little response to sterling's substantial depreciation so far this year.
They also said that the inflationary effect from the pound's fall, through higher import prices, was likely to be muted. Any rate cut that turned out to have been unnecessary could quickly be reversed, they added.