Bank of England policymakers voted 7-2 earlier this month to inject Britain's faltering economy with an extra £50 billion sterling, minutes of their meeting showed today. The two who voted against had wanted stimulus totalling £75 billion, the minutes added.
All nine policymakers voted to keep the Bank of England's key lending rate at a record low 0.5%, where they have stood for almost three years. The Bank of England rate has stood at 0.5% since March 2009 when it began injecting £200 billion into the economy under a radical policy known as Quantitative Easing.
The central bank opted last October to increase the QE amount to £275 billion, before announcing on February 9 its intention to pump out an extra £50 billion - bringing the total to £325 billion.
Under QE, the central bank creates new cash that is used to purchase assets such as government and corporate bonds in the hope of giving a boost to lending and economic activity.
Two members of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee, David Miles and Adam Posen voted at the last meeting to hike QE to £350 billion.
For these two, "there was a risk of a prolonged period of depressed demand causing British inflation to fall materially below the 2% target in the medium term", the minutes said.
For the remaining seven MPC members, "it was not clear that a stimulus larger than that was warranted at the current juncture. In addition, given market expectations, a larger increase risked sending a signal that the Committee thought the economic situation was weaker than it was," the minutes added.
