BOE voted 5 to 4 to hold rate at 6%

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee's January 11th decision to hold its repo rate at 6 per cent was taken on a 5 to 4 majority vote, according to minutes of the meeting released today.

Dissenting votes came from Mr Christopher Allsott, Mr Charles Bean, Mr Deanne Julius and Mr Sushial Wadwhani.

At the December meeting, Mr Wadwhani and Mr Julius had opted for a rate cut.

The minority held the view in January that not cutting rates posed some risk of a fall in confidence that might prove difficult to reverse.

They believed it was better to be pre-emptive and cut the rate by 25 basis points.

The minutes revealed, however, that for the majority the right course was to leave rates unchanged despite the slowdown in the US.

AFP