Business leaders in Birmingham are backing the Bank of England's
decision to pump more money into the economy.
Birmingham and Solihull Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCI)
welcomed today's decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to
extend its quantitative easing programme by another £50
billion and hold interest rates at their current record low of 0.5
per cent.
Bridget Blow, President of the BCI, said: "The jury is still out
on quantitative easing but there is no point in the MPC resting on
its laurels and today's decision is the correct one.
"There are tentative signs of recovery. Official figures
show that industrial output which had collapsed late last year as
factories shut their doors, rose by a stronger than expected 0.5%
in June.
"New car sales which are important for the West Midlands
manufacturing sector, rose for the first time since April last
year. Some 157,149 new cars were registered in July, up 2.4%
on June."
She added: "Even if these figures can be sustained,
recovery is still very much in its early stages, but today's
decision should ensure that the downturn does not worsen.
There is no room for complacency and the Bank of England
needs to do to more to lift the economy out of recession."