David Miles, MPC member
Minutes from this month's Monetary Policy Committee show that David Miles is remaining steadfast in his desire for further quantitative easing.
Economist Mr Miles has voted for an addition of £25bn to the asset purchase programme at the past three meetings, bringing the total to £400bn.
However, he was outvoted by the eight other committee members who chose to maintain the programme at £375bn.
Members unanimously voted to hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent.
The committee said: "Most members judged that it was not necessary at this meeting to change either bank rate or the size of the asset purchase programme in order to meet the inflation target in the medium term. For one member, the case for undertaking additional asset purchases at this meeting was nevertheless strong."
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The committee said credit conditions were easing as lower banks funding costs passed through to lower loan rates thanks to the Funding for Lending scheme. This was noted as being "encouraging" but the committee said it was still too soon to assess the full impact.
However, it added that "substantial headwinds to recovery remained, including the drag to activity from fiscal consolidation, a further squeeze in household real incomes and the deterioration in UK competiveness over the past couple of years".
The next meeting will be held on 6-7 February.
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