The Bank of England announced on Thursday no increase to its unprecedented 200 billion pound asset-buying programme, halting the scheme after 11 months in a move that could signal a return to more normal policy.

It also left UK interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent, as expected.

"The Committee will continue to monitor the appropriate scale of the asset purchase programme and further purchases would be made should the outlook warrant them," the central bank said in a statement.

The central bank has been buying assets, mostly gilts, since last March with newly-created money in an effort to boost the economy -- quantitative easing or QE in the jargon -- but the 200 billion pounds ($317.5 billion) it had so far sanctioned was exhausted last week.

Almost all analysts polled by Reuters had predicted the BoE would choose to pause the scheme this month, given the economy finally came out of its worst recession since World War Two at the end of last year.

But few expect any monetary tightening until later this year given the fragile state of the recovery.