MPC unanimous on halting quantitative easing

Members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) were unanimous in their decision not to expand quantitative easing.

According to the minutes from the MPC’s meeting that took place earlier this month, all nine members elected to keep the programme at its present level of £200 billion.

However, the publication - which also showed all chose to hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent - revealed that the decisions of some members were ’very finely balanced’.

’All members felt that the arguments in favour of leaving the size of the asset purchase programme unchanged at this meeting were more persuasive,’ the report from the two-day meeting stated.

Some analysts were surprised by the news, as it had been expected that one of the nine members would vote in favour of continuing expansion of the scheme, with David Miles being the most likely candidate.

The decision to maintain the base rate at 0.5 per cent means it remains at the record low that was set in March last year.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19620761-ADNFCR