The Bank of England left interest rates at a record low of 0.5 per cent for the sixth month running yesterday and said it would keep its £175 billion (€199 billion) asset buying programme in place.

Most analysts had predicted this after last month’s shock decision to raise the amount of money the BoE is printing to support the economy – quantitative easing – by £50 billion.

But sterling jumped, gilts fell and front month short sterling futures turned negative as some strategists had priced in an outside chance that the BoE would do more to stimulate the battered economy.

Governor Mervyn King and two other policymakers had in fact wanted to raise the QE total to £200 billion last month.