Bank of England policymakers were unanimous in their decision to maintain record-low interest rates earlier this month, minutes from the meeting showed on Wednesday.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 9-0 in favour of keeping its key rate at 0.50 percent at the last meeting held on March 3-4.

The BoE had also decided against against pumping more new money into the economy.

"Although different inferences could be drawn from recent data, all committee members agreed that the monetary stance should be left unchanged at this meeting," the minutes read.

"That would allow the committee to continue to assess the effects of the cumulative loosening of monetary policy since September 2008, alongside emerging evidence on the upside and downside risks to inflation."

The BoE's main task is to keep annual inflation close to a government-set target level of 2.0 percent.

However, twelve-month Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation surged to 3.5 percent in January -- the highest level for 14 months -- owing partly to a higher rate of tax on goods and services or value-added tax (VAT).

BoE policymakers argued that the spike was due to a range of temporary factors, according to the minutes.

"CPI had risen to 3.5 percent in January, driven up temporarily by three influences: the restoration of the standard rate of VAT; the effect of higher oil prices on petrol price inflation; and the impact of the past depreciation of sterling on import prices," the minutes added.

"If it persisted, the recent further depreciation of sterling was likely to put additional upwards pressure on inflation over the next few quarters."

In order to revive the economy, the Bank of England has meanwhile pumped out 200 billion pounds under the radical policy of quantitative easing (QE).

Introduced in March 2009 when the BoE also slashed British borrowing costs to 0.50 percent, QE meant that the central bank created money by purchasing bonds from commercial institutions.