Bank of England resists more monetary stimulus

The Bank of England refrained from more monetary stimulus to boost the economy yesterday, despite fears that the already beleaguered British economy could be about to be knocked sideways by chaos in the eurozone.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to keep its £325bn quantitative easing programme on hold after its two-day meeting, resisting calls, including from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for the central bank to do more to support economic activity.

The move was met with surprise by some City analysts since several key economic indicators have pointed downwards since the MPC's May meeting, when the nine-member committee also voted to hold off stimulus. "With the economy showing no sign of recovery and the Monetary Policy Committee's central forecast predicting inflation will trend back to target within two years, it is a bit surprising that the MPC has chosen to sit on its hands again," Andrew Smith, the chief economist at KPMG, said.

"The big picture is that output has been essentially flat for the past 18 months and there is no reason to expect any significant change in the short term," he added. A snapshot of the manufacturing sector last week pointed to the biggest monthly fall in activity in May since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

However, a survey of the UK's services sector, which makes up 75 per cent of the economy, yesterday showed a healthier picture. The Markit/Cips purchasing managers' index remained steady at 53.3 in May, with any figure above 50 indicating growth.

Yet there were also signs of the eurozone crisis beginning to hit home, with the index of business confidence among services purchasing managers falling to its lowest level of the year.

Unveiling the Bank's Inflation Report last month, Governor Sir Mervyn King said inflation was now likely to remain above the 2 per cent target for the remainder of the year. The Bank also kept the base rate on hold at the record low of 0.5 per cent.