Bank of England's bold moves paused

Policy makers from the Bank of England are not expected to make as bold a decision as last month's move to pump an extra £50 billion into the economy when they next meet.

The Quantitative Easing (QE) programme was increased to £175 billion in August, in an attempt by the panel of nine people sitting on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to help the economy. The meeting's minutes revealed the Bank Governor Mervyn King and two MPC colleagues had wanted to boost the programme by £75 billion, taking the total to £200 billion.

Mr King, backed by David Miles and Tim Besley, warned that insufficient action would cause inflation to remain below target for a long period, harming public confidence in the recovery of the economy and causing it to falter.

However, the majority of MPC members felt that too big an increase could have economic implications that were difficult to rectify and uncertain.

A further boost to the economy is thought to be unlikely so soon after increasing the QE limit, as the MPC has stressed that the effects of QE will take time to filter through. The bank's interest rates are expected to remain at their historic low of 0.5%.

But Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, said more QE cannot be ruled out.

He said: "We suspect that divisions will remain within the MPC on whether or not to extend QE and to what extent.

"While we do not expect any change in QE this month, we certainly would not rule out an eventual further extension."

He added: "The key factor is likely to be whether or not there are growing signs that bank lending is picking up, as this is vital to sustainable recovery prospects."