The Bank of England today left its benchmark refi rate unchanged at 4.75 pct, having raised it by a quarter point last month. All 30 economists polled by AFX News had correctly expected the eight-member Monetary Policy Committee will keep its base rate unchanged. The minutes of the two-day meeting which ended today will be released on Sept 20. This meeting will be the first to include Tim Besley, a professor at the London School of Economics, taking the number of rate setters to 8. The MPC will be back at full strength in October when Andrew Sentance, a former chief economist for British Airways PLC, joins. "After the excitement of Augusts rate hike, September will almost certainly mark a reversion to 'boring' monetary policy," said Ross Walker, economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland. "There is no pressing need to raise rates at this stage," added Walker, who is not expecting another rate hike this year. On Aug 3, the seven-member MPC voted 6-1 in favour of raising borrowing costs. David Blanchflower was the only rate-setter to vote to keep them unchanged. The committee agreed that a rate rise was needed to curb medium-term inflationary pressures, but the debate centred on whether an immediate hike was justified or whether there was a case for a delay. The majority felt that a rate rise would reduce the risk that a sharper rise would be needed later. The subsequent Inflation Report from the MPC fuelled expectations that there will be further interest rate hikes, but not just yet, given that the central projection was for CPI inflation to remain above 2.0 pct in two years time even if rates remained unchanged. Many observers believe the next rate hike from the central bank will come in November.