Sir Mervyn King's five parting gripes People have rather jumped the gun For anybody speculating on interest rates returning to a more 'normal' level, Sir Mervyn was quick to slap them down at Tuesday's grilling by the Treasury Select Committee. Speaking about unwinding stimulus measures on both sides of the Atlantic, he said: "I think people have rather jumped the gun thinking this means an imminent return to normal levels of interest rates, it doesn't." He argued that economic growth would need to be stronger before interest rates could rise. "The view that we are definitely at the beginning of the end, that we are definitely at the point where we need to raise interest rates, I think is a premature judgment about where we are, and no central bank has moved rapidly down that course," he said. "I've been very disappointed at the failure of the world to put in place the policies required to create economic conditions when it would be desirable to return to normal levels of interest rates," added Sir Mervyn. There were cetainly calls made to No.11 Sir Mervyn fired a final parting shot at the banks as he attacked lenders for their intense political lobbying against tougher balance sheet rules. The City watchdog last week told banks that they must stump up another £13.4bn to plug a higher-than-expected £27.1bn hole in their finances under plans to ensure bank finances are strong enough to withstand future shocks. "Very often it was the first response" by banks to call politicians following confidential discussions with regulators, said Sir Mervyn. "There were certainly calls made to number 11 and even in some cases to number 10 to try put pressure on supervisors to modify, be more reasonable in their judgement," he added. 'They haven't blown it yet' The outgoing bank governor also hit out at governments worldwide for failing to take advantage of the opportunity offered by massive money-printing programmes to rebalance their economies. Asked by Andrea Leadsom MP if governments had "blown" the window created over the past five years, Sir Mervyn said they had "failed to take advantage of the time we have created." But he added: "They haven't blown it yet - there's still time." No one will take any notice Questioned about whether there was a lack of analysis in the Bank's stability reports in the run-up to the financial crisis, Sir Mervyn retorted "our own reports were full of warnings." And asked by the Treasury Select Committee about the Bank's supervisory powers, Sir Mervyn said: "The real lesson from this is you can publish as many Financial Stability Reports as you want, no one will take any notice unless you have the ability to do something about it. The Bank of England now does have the ability to do something about it - it is the banking supervisor. A disaster Speaking about the eurozone's economic travails, Sir Mervyn was quick to point out that he had "never used the word 'austerity' in terms of it being part of the solution." "Austerity in those countries which have no other instruments of policy to bring about growth has been a disaster and you see that in the euro area very clearly," he said. Commenting on Britain's own stuttering economic growth, Sir Mervyn - who has been outvoted in calling for more quantitative easing - said that the UK recovery was "too weak to be satisfactory" despite mounting signs of improvements in key sectors.