- By Faisal Islam & Lucy Hooker
- BBC News
9 minutes ago
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says Britain’s economy is “back”, and that his approach for development has been welcomed at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington.
His predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, left the preceding IMF meeting in October early, amid a barrage of criticism.
Mr Hunt stated the international lending physique saw he was “placing the British economy back on the ideal track”.
Nevertheless, the most up-to-date figures show the UK economy failed to develop in February.
When challenged more than no matter whether the UK’s present overall performance undermined his constructive message, Mr Hunt stated: “It really is other finance ministers who are telling me Britain is back”.
Britain’s economy has only just recovered to the size it was prior to the pandemic, following months of industrial action, swiftly increasing rates and labour shortages.
On Friday nurses in the RCN union rejected the present of a five% spend rise and stated they planned to strike once more at the start off of May well. Meanwhile, NHS junior physicians in England are at the moment staging a 4-day walkout more than spend, ending at 07:00 on Saturday.
Nevertheless, Mr Hunt stated it was crucial to stay away from fuelling additional inflation via spend rises. He stated Britain had avoided recession this year “so far”, and that he hoped to see more rapidly development and falling inflation in the months ahead.
Measures in his March Price range to aid corporations recruit additional employees and to enhance investment, like an enhance in childcare funding, really should stimulate development, he added.
Investor self-confidence in the UK was shaken final year in the course of the brief-lived government of prime minister Liz Truss, which saw Mr Kwarteng present an financial approach that incorporated important tax cuts with out an explanation of how they would be funded.
The outlook for the UK, which relies heavily on economic solutions, could be clouded by present uncertainty in the banking sector, following the collapse of 3 US banks and UBS’s emergency takeover of Credit Suisse.
Nevertheless, Mr Hunt stated the UK had “a pretty robust, resilient banking method”, which was now in a a lot greater position than it was just before the 2008 economic crisis.
“Am I confident in the resilience of our banking method, the second biggest economic solutions centre in the globe?’ Yes, I am,” he stated.
Although the government is taking into consideration reforming some of the guidelines governing economic solutions, place in location soon after 2008, Mr Hunt stated the strategy was “definitely not to unlearn the lessons of the economic crisis”.
“We are searching at all of these issues, but we’re not going to do it in a way that rows back on any of the pretty crucial protections that we have in location,” he stated.
But he stated the development of the UK’s tech and life sciences industries meant regulations necessary to adapt.
“We have a lot of higher development firms in the UK, and they have to have to have banking solutions that suit their desires. And that is a distinction from a decade ago,” he stated.