TWO members of the UK Monetary Policy Committee voted for even-greater economic stimulus than that approved two weeks ago – when the scale of quantitative easing was increased by £50 billion to £325bn – it has emerged.

Minutes of the Bank of England committee's February 8 and 9 meeting, published yesterday, show that external MPC members Adam Posen and David Miles had preferred a £75bn hike in QE.

The minutes highlight a belief in this minority camp that there is a "risk of a prolonged period of depressed demand causing inflation to fall materially below the target in the medium term", and a worry that "persistently weak growth might impair the future supply capacity of the economy".

Mr Posen and Mr Miles were outvoted by the other seven members of the committee, who all preferred the £50bn increase in QE which is now being implemented.

The QE programme, through which the Bank creates new money to buy Government and corporate bonds, is aimed at boosting the amount of money circulating and stimulating economic activity.

The votes of Mr Posen and Mr Miles signal significant worries about the prospects for a UK economy which is having to deal with huge public spending cuts. And their push for a greater increase in QE will further fuel speculation that the MPC could come back with more monetary policy stimulus before too long.

Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said: "We had thought that Posen might do this, but Miles was a bit more of a surprise."

Ms Redwood, who expects a further rise in QE later this year, added: "One of the reasons the majority gave for voting for only £50bn was simply the risk that it might send out too negative a signal about the state of the economy. This hardly suggests that the committee considers its job now done."

The MPC voted unanimously two weeks ago to hold UK base rates at a record low of 0.5%.