By Jason Douglas 
 

LONDON--The Bank of England kept its benchmark rate steady, but a debate over tightening policy to restrain inflation is heating up.

The BOE said in a statement Thursday that its nine-member Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to keep the central bank's policy rate at a record low of 0.1%.

But two officials on the panel pushed for the BOE's asset purchase program to be scaled back. Michael Saunders and David Ramsden called for the BOE to reduce the target for its government bond purchases to 840 billion pounds ($1.144 trillion) from GBP875 billion currently, a move that would bring it to an end before the end of 2021.

These two members argued that mounting inflationary pressures mean the bank is in danger of persistently overshooting its 2% annual inflation goal without some withdrawal of stimulus. Mr. Saunders has pushed for a similar move previously but this is the first time Mr. Ramsden joined him.

Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 23, 2021 07:37 ET (11:37 GMT)