British central bank maintains 0.5% interest rate

Bank of England, the central bank of Britain, maintained bank rate at 0.5 percent, deciding not to further expand its quantitative easing (QE) stimulus program, according to minutes issued by the bank on Thursday.At a recent meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank, the committee's nine members were still divided on QE funds expansion, voting 6-3 to keep its QE cash stimulus amount at 375 billion pounds (568 billion U.S. dollars), repeating January's voting pattern.The bank interest rate was cut to a record low of 0.5 percent in March 2009, and the previous change in the size of QE program was an increase of 50 billion pounds to the present amount in July 2012.Britain's economy contracted by 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2012, and if it shrinks in the first quarter of this year, the country will enter its third recession in five years.For the fourth month in a row, outgoing central bank governor Mervyn King was joined by fellow committee members David Miles and Paul Fisher in calling for a further 25 billion pounds to a total of 400 billion pounds in stimulus cash.Incoming Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is expected to take up his role in July.However, Britain's service sector achieved the fastest growth in March for seven months, easing worries that the country's economy may fall back to recession in the first quarter.Earlier Thursday, the purchasing managers' index (PMI) issued jointly by the Markit/CIPS PMI report showed that Britain's service sector, which accounts for three-quarters of the economy, rose to 52.4 in March from 51.8 in the previous month.