Minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting held on 5 and 6 August 2009

The MPC at its meeting voted to maintain Bank Rate at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to increase the stock of purchased assets financed by the issuance of central bank reserves by £50 billion to £175 billion.

Published on 19 August 2009

The Governor invited the Committee to vote on the proposition that:

Bank Rate should be maintained at 0.5%;
The Bank of England should finance a further £50 billion of asset purchases by the creation of central bank reserves, implying a total quantity of £175 billion of such asset purchases. The Bank should seek to complete the additional purchases within the next three months.

Six members of the Committee (Charles Bean, Paul Tucker, Kate Barker, Spencer Dale, Paul Fisher and Andrew Sentance) voted in favour of the proposition. Three members of the Committee (the Governor, Tim Besley and David Miles) voted against, preferring to increase the size of the asset purchase programme by £75 billion to a total of £200 billion.

Minutes of the meeting