BANK of England policymaker Paul Fisher has sought to dampen City expectations of an imminent withdrawal of quantitative easing by indicating the discussions on the Monetary Policy Committee still centre on whether to provide more stimulus.

Mr Fisher, the Bank's executive director for markets also indicated that when Threadneedle Street does start to tighten monetary conditions, it will do so initially through increased interest rates.

Giving evidence to MPs on the Treasury committee, Mr Fisher said: "All the discussions that we are having at the moment are more about whether we should be giving forward guidance and using thresholds, whether we should be giving more stimulus, rather than discussing what the exit strategy will be.

"We'll get to that, no doubt, when we get a bit closer to the exit. But I think people have looked very hard at what's happened in the US and we'll be absorbing that in terms of what our reactions in future might be."

The Bank of England has bought £375 billion of primarily UK government bonds in an effort to inject money into the economy and stimulate a recovery.

However, signals from the United States that it will ease up on its equivalent programme were taken by investors in the United Kingdom as a sign that the Bank too could soon begin a reversal of the process.

Despite fears that the attempt to provide guidance on the US Federal Reserve's intentions by chairman Ben Bernanke was misinterpreted, Mr Fisher indicated that such an approach could be used in the UK.

"This has been the biggest recession in the UK economy since at least the Great Depression, so we have had the most extraordinary macroeconomic policy measures to deal with that.

"So, of course it (QE exit) is the biggest challenge we've will have had for 50 or 60 years.

"I am reasonably optimistic that we can get this right if we are clear and transparent about what our intentions are. It's possible forward guidance may help."

Mr Fisher, seen as a contender for the Bank deputy governorship to be vacated by Paul Tucker, indicated that when tightening happens, it will begin with raising base rates from their current record low of 0.5%.

"It is much easier to be activist with interest rates than it is with gilt sales when we come out, because of the risk of causing disorderly reactions," he said.

"With interest rates we will be able to move them up, we will be able to move them down.

"We will be able to stop one month and not do anything for three months, then re-start again.

"With gilt sales, we really need to be programmatic."