LONDON—The Bank of England will be the first major central bank to raise interest rates but whether that initial increase comes as soon as next month or if it waits until early next year has divided economists polled by Reuters. Britain’s central bank surprised markett not a majority of the economists Reuters surveyed in October—by leaving Bank Rate unchanged at a record low of 0.10 percent last week. While the median forecast in the Nov. 8-12 poll was for a 15 basis point increase on Dec. 16, just under half of those polled, 21 of 47, said the Bank would hold firm. If it does act next month it would be its first December hike since 1994. “The meeting in December is now clearly ‘live’. Particularly important for the MPC will be the two upcoming labour market releases,” said Marchel Alexandrovich at Jefferies. “If both are decent, the majority of …