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 fourth 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 majority of policymakers said low oil prices and subdued wage growth will keep a lid on inflation.
“There would need to be a sustained firming in domestic cost pressures, compared with current rates,” to push inflation back to the 2% target, officials said.
Inflation may turn positive in November, officials said, however “core inflation remains subdued.”
Most market players expect the BOE to begin slowly raising interest rates in mid-2016.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.5158 from around 1.5180 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7224 from 0.7213 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were mostly lower. London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.55%, the EURO STOXX 50 dipped 0.55%, France's CAC 40 dipped 0.2%, while Germany's DAX inched down 0.2%.