Minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting held on 7 and 8 March 2012

The MPC at its meeting voted to maintain Bank Rate at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of purchased assets financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £325 billion.

Published on 21 March 2012

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

Bank Rate should be maintained at 0.5%;
The Bank of England should continue with the programme of asset purchases totalling £325 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

Regarding Bank Rate, the Committee voted unanimously in favour of the proposition.

Regarding the stock of asset purchases, seven members of the Committee (the Governor, Charles Bean, Paul Tucker, Ben Broadbent, Spencer Dale, Paul Fisher and Martin Weale) voted in favour of the proposition. Two members of the Committee (David Miles and Adam Posen) voted against, preferring to increase the size of the asset purchase programme by a further £25 billion to a total of £350 billion.

Minutes of the meeting