Outgoing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King was outvoted in his final policy meeting, as most policymakers overturned his call for additional stimulus citing sustained economic recovery, the minutes of the session held on June 5 and 6 showed Wednesday.
As seen in the past few months, King, Paul Fisher and David Miles sought an increase in quantitative easing by GBP 25 billion, while other six members of the committee voted to retain it at GBP 375 billion.
King, whose call for QE has been defeated since February, is set to step down from the Governor post at the end of this month. He has held the post of the BoE Governor for the past 10 years and cast his vote 194 times since the central bank became independent in 1997.
His successor Mark Carney is not expected to take any action at his first MPC meeting in July.
"For most members, the current policy setting was appropriate at this time," the minutes showed. But, King and the two others in minority said the case for more stimulus remained compelling.
At the same time, the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee unanimously decided to maintain the record low 0.50 percent interest rate.
Most members said further purchases could lead to an unwarranted narrowing in risk premia and complicate the transition to a more normal monetary policy stance at some point in the future.
The effects of the Committee's previous round of asset purchases were still working through and, together with the Funding for Lending Scheme, should continue to boost activity.
King, Fisher and Miles said an increase in stimulus will strengthen growth without lifting inflation. "Additional asset purchases now would allow an earlier normalization of the monetary stance," the minutes revealed.
Policymakers said inflation is more likely than not would temporarily rise to around 3 percent in the summer, remaining close to that level throughout the autumn.
Overall, the Committee judged that recent news was consistent with the slow but sustained recovery in growth over 2013.
Capital Economics Chief U.K. economist Vicky Redwood said she put about a 50 percent chance of more QE being announced in August. Some members who voted to keep QE unchanged are still open to the idea of doing more.
According to Agents summary, investment intentions remained very modest, though it had strengthened a little in the service sector. There had been a further, if very gradual, improvement in credit conditions.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.