Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, in his inaugural Autumn Statement, unveiled a sweeping £55 billion ($66 billion) fiscal plan.
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U.K. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt will deliver the federal government’s Spring Budget at 12:30 p.m. London time on Wednesday.
In his Autumn Statement in November, Hunt delivered a £55 billion ($66 billion) package of tax rises and spending cuts in a bid to plug a considerable hole within the country’s public funds and restore its fiscal credibility after a tumultuous yr for the British economy.
An unexpectedly significant improvement within the country’s fiscal position and falling wholesale natural gas prices have since propelled the federal government to a surprise budget surplus, while public sector borrowing has undershot expectations up to now in 2023.
As such, economists expect Hunt to deploy some modest fiscal support geared toward the country’s cost-of-living crisis and creaking public services, blighted in recent months by widespread industrial motion.
Schools and travel will probably be heavily disrupted on Wednesday as teachers and rail employees go on strike, while civil servants and junior doctors are also walking out.
Calls from some lawmakers throughout the ruling Conservative Party for radical motion to scale back the country’s tax burden, which sits at a 70-year high, are unlikely to be heeded in Hunt’s first Spring Budget as he looks to further shore up the federal government’s fiscal position.
Hunt can be expected to unveil measures to tackle high levels of economic activity within the U.K., which continues to be the one country within the G-7 to have recovered its lost output throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Various British news organizations reported Tuesday that the chancellor will announce 12 recent low-tax “investment zones” dotted throughout the U.K., a scaled back version of a project introduced by former Prime Minister Liz Truss.