Voting unanimous at last MPC meeting

by Aaron Strutt

Nov 24 2011

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted 9-0 in favour of maintaining base rate and the programme of asset purchases during November's meeting.

The minutes from the Committee's latest discussion show that the existing programme of asset purchases would take a further three months to complete. They also said that due to the current level of market capacity it was difficult to increase the monthly rate of asset purchases substantially above what was already underway.

There was a strong signal that there will be more Quantitative Easing in the near future. The minutes went on to say: “Some members also thought that the balance of risks to inflation in the November Inflation Report projections meant that a further expansion of the asset purchase programme might well be warranted in due course; anticipation of that might itself have an effect on asset prices and demand.  Although some other members judged that the risks to inflation around the target were more balanced."

Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics commented on the report: "Overall, more QE still looks very likely, although it does not look like the Committee will be panicked into announcing more purchases before it has even completed those already underway. We are therefore sticking with our forecast that we will see another £75bn in February - and probably more after that."

24 November 2011