Bank minutes show one dove in favour of QE
ONE BANK of England rate-setter strongly considered voting for expanding quantitative easing (QE) in August, meeting minutes revealed yesterday, though in the end there was a unanimous vote against.
Analysts agreed that this lone dove on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was probably David Miles, known for his pro-QE stance.
A bigger contingent of the MPC thought there was a good case for increased asset purchases at some point in the near future – but all nine ended up voting against increasing QE from £375bn.
But in this meeting policymakers continued with their “wait and see” approach – saying it was difficult to predict the effects of the funding for lending scheme, and the current £50bn package of purchases.
The MPC also expressed concerns that inflation would not fall back as far as they had expected in their August inflation report – which they cited as a reason for keeping QE as it stood.
The option to cut the Bank’s base rate from 0.5 per cent was also unanimously rejected – but MPC members did not discuss this decision in detail.