British Central Bank prints new £75bn

The Bank of England today embarked on radical moves to “print money� in an aggressive new phase of its battle to combat Britain’s economic slump.

In a landmark decision that marks a determined stepping-up of its fight to end recession and secure a recovery, the Bank confirmed it is beginning a strategy of so-called “quantitative easing�. It is to pump £75 billion of newly created money into the economy over three months.

The ground-breaking step came as the Bank’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee also pushed interest rates to yet another historic low.

But the focus of interest on today's crucial decisions from the Bank was on the move to press ahead with the measures of so-called “quantitative easing�, or “QE�.

These have become necessary in part because with interest rates having been cut so sharply in recent months, the Bank is close to the zero limit below which rates cannot fall.

The green light for today’s drastic action was given by the Chancellor in a letter to Mervyn King, the Bank’s Governor, released today alongside the MPC’s announcement that it will immediately put to work its new powers to pump up the amount of cash and credit flowing in the economy in an attempt to jump-start growth.