SOME members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) believed a good case could be made for immediate further stimulus to boost the recession-blighted UK economy when they met two weeks ago.

This belief was revealed yesterday with publication of minutes of the MPC's August 1 and 2 meeting. It fuelled expectations of a further increase later this year in the quantitative easing programme, which is aimed at stimulating activity by boosting money supply through the purchase of Government and corporate bonds using central bank reserves.

The minutes showed all nine MPC members voted on August 2 to maintain the scale of the QE programme at £375 billion – having voted by a majority to raise it by £50bn to this level in July – and to hold UK base rates at their record low of 0.5%.

But the minutes reveal a minority of MPC members believed the decision on the level of QE was "finely balanced", even though the extra £50bn of asset purchases decided upon at the July meeting are not due to be completed until November. They state: "For some members the decision was nevertheless more finely balanced, since a good case could be made at this meeting for more asset purchases."

Other members preferred to hang fire, to enable consideration of the impact of the £80bn Funding for Lending Scheme,(FLS), a Bank of England and UK Government scheme which will offer banks cheaper funds in the hope it will boost lending to households and businesses.

The minutes say: "For most members, the decision this month was relatively straightforward. Over the coming months, the committee could take stock of the impact of the FLS and the implications this had for other potential policy options.

Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, believed this reference to "other potential policy options" meant that a further cut in UK base rates was a possibility. Capital Economics forecasts a rate cut in November, along with another boost to QE.

The minutes indicate there was no significant renewed discussion two weeks ago about whether or not there is a case for cutting UK base rates further.

Minutes of the July meeting, while noting the MPC judged last month that a further rate cut "continued to have drawbacks", stated: "The impact of the FLS and other policy initiatives might, in time, alter the committee's assessment of the effectiveness of such a rate reduction."

Bank Governor Sir Mervyn King last week signalled he was in no rush to cut base rates.

Bank of England chief economist Spencer Dale and external MPC member Ben Broadbent voted against a July rise in QE, in a seven-to-two vote.

Signalling they remained unconvinced by this rise in QE at the August meeting, the latest minutes state: "For those members who had voted against the expansion of the programme at the previous meeting, there were potentially costs to reversing the previous month's decision."

The minutes say of MPC members' discussions about UK economic performance: "Output growth in manufacturing and services, excluding the impact of temporary factors, had been weak and indicators over the month had suggested that it would remain so in the third quarter. This would continue the disappointing pace of recovery in GDP (gross domestic product), which had been broadly flat since the second half of 2010."

While setting out MPC members' hopes for the Funding for Lending Scheme, the minutes show that the committee noted "some banks had been planning to cut their lending to the UK economy in the coming months, before the details of the FLS had been announced".

The central projection in the Bank of England's latest quarterly forecasts, published last week, is that annual UK consumer prices index inflation will be about 1% to 1.5% on the favoured two-year time horizon, even if UK base rates were to remain at 0.5% and QE at £375bn throughout this period.

Figures this week from the Office for National Statistics showed an unexpected rise in annual UK consumer prices index inflation from 2.4% in June to 2.6% in July. However, the ONS cited the impact on the inflation figures of retailers bringing forward summer clearance sales to June.