With Carney in the wings, Bank of England holds steady The Bank of England voted against restarting its bond buying on Thursday and left interest rates at a record low, bringing to a close Governor Mervyn King's final Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The decision to leave policy unchanged before the arrival next month of King's successor, former Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney, was widely expected by economists, as recent data suggests Britain's recovery is gathering strength. King, who is retiring from the bank after a 20-year career at the BoE, has argued since February, along with two other policy makers, for an extra £25-billion ($38-billion U.S.) of bond purchases to boost Britain's sluggish economic recovery. But they look set to remain in the minority on the nine-member MPC, most of whom seem to have felt that signs of recovery in the British economy mean there is no need for extra stimulus now. King's retirement this month will mark the end of an era. He has voted at every MPC meeting since the BoE became independent in 1997 and was a driving force behind the asset purchase policy also known as quantitative easing. As usual, the BoE issued no statement alongside its decision, and voting records for the MPC's June 5-6 meeting will not be published until June 19. Although recent private sector surveys support the BoE's forecast that economic growth will pick up to 0.5 per cent during the current quarter, last month some officials said there was still more scope to boost demand without pushing up inflation. Inflation fell more than expected to 2.4 per cent in April, but it has been above its 2-per-cent target since December 2009.