Investing.com - Minutes from the Bank of England's most recent policy meeting released Thursday showed that the Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 to keep rates on hold.
The minutes showed eight members were in favor of leaving the key interest rate at a record low of 0.5%, in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous meeting.
Dissenting member Ian McCafferty voted for a 0.25% hike in the benchmark rate to 0.75% for the second consecutive month.
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 U.K. economy’s prospects remain positive and recent market turmoil related to China’s slowdown hasn’t shaken the bank's view that the time for a rate increase is approaching.
“Global developments do not as yet appear sufficient to alter materially the central outlook described” in the August Inflation Report, the minutes said.
Most market players expect the BOE to begin slowly raising interest rates in mid-2016.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.5442 from around 1.5386 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7246 from 0.7273 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were lower. London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.8%, the EURO STOXX 50 slumped 0.85%, France's CAC 40 declined 0.7%, while Germany's DAX lost 0.45%.