(MENAFN- AFP) Bank of England governor Mervyn King called in May for more quantitative easing stimulus cash at his penultimate meeting, but was out-voted for the fourth month in a row, minutes showed on Wednesday.
The BoE's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 6-3 to maintain the stimulus amount at £375 billion ($566 billion, 437 billion euros), repeating the voting pattern from February, March and April, according to minutes from their May 8-9 gathering.
King -- who steps down at the end of June -- was joined again by fellow MPC members David Miles and Paul Fisher in calling for an extra £25 billion in QE stimulus in order to boost economic growth.
The minutes release, combined with poor retail sales data, sent sterling sliding to one-month lows against both the dollar and the euro.
At the meeting, members voted unanimously to keep the BoE's key lending rate at a record low level of 0.50 percent, where it has stood since March 2009.
Wednesday's news came one day after official data showed that annual inflation hit a seven-month low point in March, further stoking hopes of more QE.
British 12-month inflation slowed to 2.4 percent in April, striking the lowest level since September 2012 on the back of lower transport costs.
The BoE's main task is to keep inflation close to a 2.0-percent target level.
King will be replaced by Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney at the start of July.
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