LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England added no more stimulus to the economy on Thursday after its November policy meeting, seeming to want evidence of a sharper economic slowdown before it considers the U.S. path of more quantitative easing.

The Bank’s decision contrasts with a move by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday to buy $600 billion (370 billion pounds) of bonds with new money over the next eight months, after what it called “disappointingly slow” progress towards its economic targets.

Economists had seen an outside chance the Bank might choose to add to the 200 billion pounds of assets purchased between March 2009 and January this year, in a pre-emptive move against the effects of hefty public spending cuts due next year.

But above-target inflation and robust third quarter growth appear to have stayed the Monetary Policy Committee’s hand for now. This pushed sterling to a 9-month high against the dollar and taking gilt futures to a 3-day low.

“With inflation remaining well above target and higher VAT from January next year likely to keep it there through 2011, the BoE will be looking for clear signs that the recovery is stalling before embarking on additional QE,” said ING economist James Knightley.

The Bank’s decision to keep rates at their record low of 0.5 percent had been anticipated by all 63 analysts in a Reuters poll last week. The only analyst who had forecast more QE when polled revised his call on Wednesday after firmer-than-expected data from purchasing managers in the services sector.

Inflation at 3.1 percent is 2 percentage points higher than in the United States, and well above the BoE’s 2 percent target, while the unemployment rate is 2 percentage points lower.

But there is a chance the central bank may eventually decide more stimulus is needed to shore up the economy against deep government spending cuts, and a significant number of analysts reckon that could come in February.

“Despite the MPC’s no-change decision, I doubt that we will have to wait much longer to see the launch of so-called ‘QE2’,” said Roger Bootle, an economic advisor to accountants Deloitte.

“Further support is needed to see the economy through the biggest government spending cuts in decades, with extra asset purchases the only option left,” Bootle said, adding that government spending had added an average of 1 percent a year to British output over the past decade.

One Monetary Policy Committee member, Adam Posen, voted in October for a 50 billion pounds expansion of the Bank’s asset purchase programme and is likely to have done the same this month, while Andrew Sentance will probably have reiterated his call for higher rates.

Minutes to the November 3-4 meeting published on November 17 will reveal whether either man was able to win broader support on the MPC.

“Of key interest will be whether any of the other seven MPC members came off the monetary policy fence. We suspect not,” said Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.