Investing.com - Minutes from the Bank of England's most recent policy meeting released Wednesday showed that the Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to keep rates on hold and its quantitative-easing program unchanged.
The minutes show seven members were in favor of leaving the key interest rate at a record low of 0.5% and making no changes to the central bank's £375 billion asset-purchase program.
However, dissenting members Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty voted for a 0.25% hike in the benchmark rate to 0.75% for the third consecutive meeting.
According to the minutes, policymakers see weak price pressures and low wage growth and that the CPI outlook doesn’t justify a rate increase.
The minutes added that some MPC members see signs that U.K. growth is losing momentum.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.6016 from around 1.6065 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7922 from 0.7902 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were mostly lower. London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.3%, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 dipped 0.55%, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.25%, while Germany's DAX slumped 0.15%.