Bank of England policymakers voted 5-4 against pumping Britain's recession-hit economy with more new cash under its Quantitative Easing programme, minutes of a meeting showed today.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and three other central bank members voted earlier in June for more stimulus - up to a total of £50 billion sterling
But they were out-numbered by those wishing to sit tight.
All nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to leave the bank's main interest rate at 0.5%, where it has stood for more than three years.
"While acknowledging that further stimulus was likely to become warranted at some point, most members noted that there were several key events occurring over the coming weeks that could have a material bearing on the situation in the euro area and that there was merit in waiting to see how matters evolved there," the minutes added.
The Bank of England said that King, along with two other MPC members voted to pump out an additional £50 billion of stimulus, while one member - Paul Fisher - suggested an increase of £25 billion.
Britain's central bank has injected £325 billion of new money into the economy since early 2009 - but analysts argue that more is needed because the country is back in recession. Following the latest minutes, they suggested that more QE was just around the corner.
Under QE, the bank creates new cash to purchase assets such as government and corporate bonds with the aim of boosting lending and economic output.
The Bank of England's main task is to use monetary policy as a tool to keep annual inflation close to a government-set target of 2%. Official data published yesterday showed British 12-month inflation fell to a rate of 2.8% in May - the lowest level for more than two years.
