The Bank of England left the door wide open to a further expansion of quantitative easing even as it said that the economy could be at the start of 'virtuous upward spiral', according to minutes from the past meeting of the monetary policy committee.

The MPC voted unanimously to keep its programme of asset purchases at £175bn in September, the minutes showed, after surprising markets with a £50bn expansion in August.

But the Bank has made clear that any decision on altering the amount of quantitative easing – the policy of creating money in order to boost spending and avoid persistently low inflation – is highly unlikely to be made until more comprehensive forecasts are available ahead of its November inflation report.

Financial Times