Bank of England considered £75bn of QE Adam Posen and David Miles, both external members of the Monetary Policy Committee, voted for £75bn of quantitative easing (QE) - setting them against their seven colleagues who all voted for an extra £50bn. The total amount of QE now pledged since early 2009 is £325bn, a third of the Government's entire debt. Others may have voted tactically, though, fearing that a £75bn increase in QE would have sent the wrong message about the economy, even if it was the right decision. "Given market expectations, a larger increase risked sending a signal that the committee thought the economic situation was weaker than it was," the minutes said. Nida Ali, of the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, noted: "The minutes are more upbeat about the economic outlook than in recent months, suggesting that the worst is behind us. This seems to be one of the main drivers behind lowering the size of asset purchases from £75bn in October to £50bn this time around. Although two members voted to raise the level of QE by £75bn, the minutes give the distinct impression that the majority of the Committee is content that it has already done enough to loosen monetary policy in the face of a faltering recovery. The minutes said that the members agreed that "it seemed likely growth in the first quarter of 2012 would be somewhat stronger than the committee had expected at its previous meeting," but that "growth was likely to be volatile in the near term." After that, the economy should "strengthen gradually, supported by a recovery in households" real income growth and the expansionary stance of monetary policy. Headwinds from the weak external environment, tight credit conditions and the fiscal consolidation were, however, likely to continue to depress spending, so that some margin of economic slack was likely to persist.