All nine members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5% and maintain the £200 billion sterling asset buying programme in December, as expected.
Minutes to the December 9-10 meeting, published today, showed that policymakers felt little had changed since November when they expanded quantitative easing by £25 billion - cash pumped into the economy by buying assets.
The November decision, however, had been split. The bank's chief economist Spencer Dale had favoured no QE expansion while external member David Miles wanted a £40 billion increase.
The December minutes said those who had sought a different outcome in November still thought 'a slightly different scale of asset purchases could still be justified'.
'But the lack of significant news on the month meant that the case for deviating from the programme of asset purchases announced in November was outweighed by the benefits of completing it as planned,' the minutes said.
On current plans, the QE programme is scheduled to be completed before the BoE publishes its next inflation forecasts in February. Most analysts expect the scheme to be frozen at that month's meeting and for it to be eventually wound down as the economy recovers.
Britain has been in recession for at least 18 months, the longest period of contraction since the Second World War, but is showing signs of recovery. Policymakers expect growth to return in the fourth quarter of this year.
The MPC noted in the minutes that it was difficult to identify with any certainty whether the economy had turned and said there had been both positive and negative developments.
'There were exceptional uncertainties over the outlook for inflation and activity growth which would only be resolved over time,' the minutes said.
'These included the willingness and ability of banks to lend to the private sector, the extent to which households would increase saving in response to weakened balance sheets and employment uncertainty, and the size, speed and nature of the fiscal consolidation.'
Positive developments over the month included an upward revision to third quarter GDP figures, better than expected labour market data and higher business capital market issuance.
