Osborne Misses Austerity Targets As UK Growth Slows
London, England – George Osborne, Finance Minister for Britain, has missed his austerity targets as UK growth slows. Osborne will update the British Parliament today with new growth and budget deficit figures and his flagship deficit reduction plan will probably take a cannonball to its hull. Osborne has long put financial frugality at the government’s policy, but spending and thus borrowing will likely rise this year.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, British Finance Minister George Osborne is the is the most likely person to appear in a British citizen’s nightmares. Their anxiety has been triggered by Osborne’s push for austerity measures, which unfortunately required necessary cuts to welfare programs. As a comparison, the United States Congress is currently embroiled in an argument over entitlement programs, with neither major political party wanting to take the blame for failing.
According to Reuters, a darker economic for England and the Eurozone in general will likely require Osborne to commit to spending cuts years in the future. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s original plan to eliminate a large structural budget deficit is under threat but can be saved if parliament takes action. Osborne desires to have debt falling by 2016, but now austerity measures will have to be extended to 2018 to close the budget deficit. But depending on the response by Parliament, Britain could be in danger of losing its prized triple-A credit rating, just like the United States did when the US Congress could not come to a decision on its own budget woes.
According to CNN, the Office for Budget Responsibility now expects the British economy to shrink 0.1 percent this year and grow by 1.2 percent next year, down from its 0.8 per cent and two percent growth forecasts in March. Osborne’s plan includes reducing the corporate tax rate by one percent, building new schools and roads, deeper spending cuts, £40 billion in new infrastructure projects, cutting auto fuel taxes, slowing the growth of income to welfare recipients, and a higher-rate threshold for income tax.
“The public know that there are no miracle cures,” Osborne told the House of Commons. “Just the hard work of dealing with our deficit and ensuring Britain wins the global race. The message from today’s Autumn Statement is that we are making progress. It is a hard road but we’re getting there and Britain is on the right track and turning back now would be a disaster.”
British Finance Minister George Osborne is a good example for what we need in the United States. What do you think of Britain’s plan to get its spending and budget deficit under control?
