The Bank recently increased the size of the asset purchase programme by £75bn to £275bn.

The decision was in stark contrast to the previous meeting when member Adam Posen has been the sole supporter of further quantitative easing.

The minutes state that the case for further asset purchases was “compelling” and that the Bank had to act “quickly and decisively.”

The reason given for the need for further QE was that inflation was likely to fall to below two per cent in 2012.

There was uncertainty over the amount of asset purchases needed as this was dependent on developments in the financial markets and euro-area. The Committee considered a range of asset purchases between £50-100bn.

“Committee members agreed that differences in the impact of asset purchase within this range were, in current conditions, likely to be outweighed by the degree of uncertainty about the outlook for inflation.”

The Bank also considered delaying the asset purchase until November when the decision could be explained in the Inflation Report but decided “any advantage to delay was thought to be insufficient to outweigh the arguments for acting immediately.”

The Committee agreed to keep the programme under review but said there was no strong reason to expect the economic effect to be different to earlier asset purchases.

Members present at the meeting were governor Mervyn King, Charles Bean, Paul Tucker, Ben Broadbent, Spencer Dale, Paul Fisher, David Miles, Adam Posen and Martin Weale.