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UK central bank panel remains cool on stimulus

[December 19, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- Minutes to the Bank of England's last rate-setting meeting show little enthusiasm for another monetary stimulus.

They show that David Miles was the only one of the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee to back an expansion of the asset purchase program, which has injected 375 billion pounds ($611 billion) into the British economy since March 2009. The majority believe it is too early to judge the effects of the latest 50 billion pounds stimulus.

All nine agreed to keep the Bank's base lending rate at the all-time low of 0.5 percent.

The minutes, published Wednesday, also suggest that the rate-setters are unsure about the underlying state of the British economy as one-off events such as the Olympic Games cloud the picture.

Britain emerged from a nine-month recession in the third quarter.

[Associated Press]

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