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Bank of England panel remains cool on stimulus

Minutes from the Bank of England's last rate-setting meeting show little enthusiasm for another monetary stimulus.

They show that David Miles was the only one of the nine member Monetary Policy Committee to back an expansion of the asset purchase programme.

This has injected £375 billion sterling into the British economy since March 2009.

The majority believe it is too early to judge the effects of the latest £50 billion stimulus. 

All nine agreed to keep the Bank's base lending rate at the all-time low of 0.5%.

The minutes, published today, also suggest that the rate-setters are unsure about the underlying state of the British economy as one-off events such as the Olympic Games cloud the picture. Britain emerged from a nine-month recession in the third quarter.