LONDON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of England (BOE), Britain's central bank, was split on how much money the bank should supply to the market under the policy of quantitative easing, according to the minutes of its last policy-making meeting released on Wednesday.

    Six members of the BOE's policy-making body -- the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) -- voted in favor of the proposition that the BOE should finance another 50 billion pounds (84 billion U.S. dollars) of asset purchases by the creation of the BOE's reserve, implying a total quantity of 175 billion pounds of such asset purchases.

    However, three members, including BOE Governor Mervyn King, wanted to increase the money supply by 75 billion pounds.

    Analysts said that the 6-3 split in the MPC showed that views within the bank differed on inflation outlook and on how deep the economic recession in the country was.

    In a statement after the meeting on Aug. 5-6, the BOE said it would ramp up its so-called quantitative easing scheme from 125 billion pounds to 175 billion pounds after winning government approval. It also said the UK recession "appears to have been deeper than previously thought."

    While keeping the short-term interest rates unchanged at its lowest level of 0.5 percent, the BOE surprised the markets earlier this month by agreeing to provide an extra 50 billion pounds of new money to the market, despite expecting the recession to soon bottom out. (1 euro = 1.41 U.S. dollars)

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis