The governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, has said that lessons had to be learnt from the financial crisis and he would be "happy to co-operate" with any future inquiry into the causes.

In a wide ranging interview with Evan Davis following his Today Lecture, Sir Mervyn said that the UK economy had not been growing too fast before the crisis, but that the balance of the economy was unsustainable.

"It was the failure of the system," he said, "and I accept responsibility for going along with a system that failed."

Although it was a patchy picture, Sir Mervyn said he believed the UK economy would begin to see signs of growth as the year progressed.

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