Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and three other top officials opposed this month's decision by the bank's nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee to cut interest rates by a quarter-point to 4.5%.
Minutes of the MPC's August meeting published today showed King, Deputy Governors Rachel Lomax and Andrew Large and executive director Paul Tucker thought it too early to conclude that inflationary pressures had abated. This was the first time the Governor had been in a minority since the MPC was set up in 1997.
But the four were outgunned by the remaining five members led by BoE chief economist Charles Bean who thought not cutting rates in August would have damaged confidence and early action could prevent the need for bigger moves later.
Analysts had predicted only one member would have opposed the cut and the minutes are likely to reduce expectations of future interest rate cuts.
