Investing.com - Minutes from the Bank of England’s policy meeting showed that all nine members were in favor of leaving the key interest rate at a record low of 0.5%.
The BOE said it was holding the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, in a widely expected move. The rate has been held at that level since March 2009. The central bank also said it was to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.
All nine members were in favor of making no changes to the central bank's £375 billion asset-purchase program.
According to the minutes, “the MPC judges that inflation expectations remain well anchored, though it remains watchful for signs that low inflation is having more persistent second-round effects on wages.”
The MPC further noted that the outlook for domestic activity was little changed from the time of the FebruaryInflation Report, “with GDP expected to grow at around average rates over the forecast period”.
The BoE also indicated that there was "increased uncertainty" surrounding the forthcoming referendum on UK membership of the European Union.
"That uncertainty is likely to have been a significant driver of the decline in sterling," the minutes said.
As far as the future path for interest rates, the minutes showed that the "MPC’s best collective judgement is that it is more likely than not that Bank Rate will need to increase over the forecast period to ensure inflation returns to the target in a sustainable fashion".
Expectations for a rate hike by the Bank of England have been pushed back to early-2017 due to a recent spate of weaker than expected data that caused the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to cut the growth forecasts for British economy during the next three years and also trim inflation estimates on Wednesday and amid uncertainty over a referendum on whether or not Britain should stay in the European Union.
Little reaction in sterling after the widely-expected decision. GBP/USD gained 0.83 to 1.4377, EUR/GBP slipped 0.23% to 78.52 and GBP/JPY fell 0.03% to 160.42.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were broadly lower. London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.39%, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 1.52%, France's CAC 40 lost 1.30%, while Germany's DAX led the losses with a decline of 01.69%.