Mervyn King loses out in fight to print more money as Bank of England overrules plans again



Sir Mervyn King was again on the losing side at the Bank of England as his plans to pump more emergency cash into the economy were overruled for a third month running.



Three members of the monetary policy committee – including Bank governor King – called for an extra £25billion of money-printing to boost growth, minutes of the April meeting showed yesterday.



But they were again outvoted by the other six members as the Bank remained split over how best to kick-start the recovery.



Overruled: Sir Mervyn King called for more quantitative easing - but the majority votes against

The 6-3 vote against expanding the £375billion quantitative easing programme was accompanied by a 9-0 vote in favour of leaving interest rates at 0.5 per cent.



The minutes were published as the Office for National Statistics said unemployment rose by 70,000 between December and February to 2.56million or 7.9 per cent – fuelling fears about the economy.

King now has only two MPC meetings left to get his way before he retires at the end of June after ten years in charge at the Bank.



Canadian Mark Carney takes over in July with many expecting him to herald a far more aggressive approach to boosting jobs and growth.



However, the MPC did float the idea of beefing up the £80billion Funding for Lending Scheme launched by the Bank and the Treasury last year to increase the number of cheap loans offered to households and businesses.



It suggested the Bank may be ready to act before the arrival of Carney, who is currently governor of the Bank of Canada, despite inflation remaining stubbornly above the 2 per cent target at 2.8 per cent.



The MPC agreed that ‘a well-capitalised banking system was essential’ to increasing lending to the real economy.

