Tucker said the bank’s £375bn ‘money printing programme’ still worked but added in some respects “it does not have the same bite as it used to have”.

The report added Tucker sounded hesitant about triggering more stimulus. “Technically we could do more,” he told EuroWeek magazine. “It’s just a question of what we think the risk to inflation would be.”

The Telegraph said his position clashed with that of governor Sir Mervyn King’s, who said in August: “I don’t accept the premise of the question that asset purchases [QE] are having a diminishing effect, I don’t believe that.”