LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Bank of England policymakers
split evenly last month between those who felt the minimum
conditions for considering an interest rate hike had been met
and those who thought the recovery was not strong enough, BoE
Governor Andrew Bailey said.
"Let me condition this by the fact that it was an unusual
meeting because there were only eight members of the committee -
so it actually was four-all," Bailey told members of the
Treasury Committee in the lower house of Britain's parliament.
As Britain's economy reeled from the hit of the coronavirus
pandemic in 2020, the BoE said it did not intend to tighten
monetary policy "at least until there was clear evidence that
significant progress was being made in eliminating spare
capacity and achieving the 2% inflation target sustainably."
The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to
keep its benchmark Bank Rate at 0.1% at its August meeting. One
member, Michael Saunders, voted for a reduction in the size of
the central bank's bond-buying programme.
(Reporting by David Milliken, William James and Alistair Smout
Writing by William Schomberg)