The Bank of England on Thursday kept its key interest rate at a record-low level of 0.50 percent, where it has stood for 17 months, as it remained on wait-and- see mode over the fragile economic recovery. 'The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official bank rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.50 percent,' the BoE said in a statement issued after its latest monthly meeting. The BoE added that it will not change its so-called quantitative easing policy, under which it had already pumped 200 billion pounds (230 billion euros, 300 billion dollars) of new money into the economy. The news came ahead of a separate interest rate call from the European Central Bank at 1145 GMT. The ECB is also forecast to keep eurozone borrowing costs at an all-time low of 1.0 percent. As is traditional when no change is made, the BoE gave no details about the reasoning behind its decisions. Economists must wait until July 21 for the publication of minutes from the meeting, which began on Wednesday. The MPC decided to maintain the status quo, despite stubbornly high inflation that sparked dissent from one policymaker last month, and amid worries about the economic impact of the government's deficit-slashing budget. Many economists argue that policymakers want to see what the impact of last month's emergency budget will be on the battered economy, which crawled out of a record-length recession in late 2009. At the previous June gathering, policymaker Andrew Sentance had voted to lift hike the central bank rate to 0.75 percent, citong the threat of a spike to inflation. That was the first time for almost two years that an MPC member had voted for tightening. 'The Bank of England has again left monetary policy unchanged,' said ING economist James Knightley. 'It is likely that Andrew Sentance again voted for a rate hike given his recent comments, but we doubt any other members will have joined him given ongoing concerns about the economic impact from fiscal consolidation and external weakness.' Britain's coalition government delivered a emergency package of higher taxation and spending cuts in June, amid intense concern about soaring state debt levels in Europe. 