Pound falls against dollar and euro on King's QE comments

Speaking to the Treasury Select Committee, Mr King said that the central bank was ready and able to resume the money printing programme. He added that interest rates are likely to stay at the current low level of 0.5 per cent.

Mr King reiterated his belief that the recovery would be a long drawn out process but did say he thought it very unlikely that Britain would lose its triple-A credit rating, despite having public debt of over 12.6 per cent of GDP, only 0.1 per cent less than Greece.

When asked if ratings agencies should be concerned about Britain’s debt, Mr King said, “I don't believe the rating agencies are concerned, in the sense that they are not re-rating the UK and I would be very surprised if they were to do so.”

By 13:49 the pound was down against the euro 0.14 per cent to 1.1368 euros, while against the dollar it was down 0.36 per cent to 1.5424 dollars.