Bank of England votes unanimously to keep policy unchanged

The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted 9-0 to leave interest rates at 0.25% and the asset purchase programme at £435bn.

The MPC said another rate cut may be on the horizon if its economic outlook in the August Inflation Report for "little growth" in the second half of 2016 is confirmed. The Bank said interest rates would be slashed "close to, but a little above, zero".

The BoE's dim outlook for the economy came on the back of the UK's vote to leave the European Union.

The Bank noted that news on the near-term momentum of the UK economy since the August Inflation Report has been slightly to the upside.

"The Committee will assess that news, along with other forthcoming indicators, during its November forecast round," the Bank said in its policy statement.

"If, in light of that full updated assessment, the outlook at that time is judged to be broadly consistent with the August Inflation Report projections, a majority of members expect to support a further cut in Bank Rate to its effective lower bound at one of the MPC’s forthcoming meetings during the course of this year."

The Bank said while some economic news had been positive, data on global economic activity has "generally been in line with the Committee’s projections" in the August Inflation Report. Growth in the UK's major trading partners expected to continue at a modest pace over the next three years.

The pound fell 0.03% to $1.3231 at 1221 BST.

Tom Stevenson, investment director for personal investing at Fidelity International, said: “While the Bank of England may not have cut rates today, it hasn’t ruled out a drop to 0.1% in the future and there are suggestions that this could happen as early as November this year. However, if it does cut close to zero later this year it will have very few monetary policy bullets left to fire if the UK economy slips into recession. Mark Carney doesn’t want to experiment with negative interest rates so any further rate cut needs to be well timed."