recession
IFS urges Osborne to develop a Plan B
The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank today urged George Osborne to prepare a 'Plan B' for fiscal consolidation in case growth prospects deteriorate.
Economic update – February 2011
The year 2011 looks like being very tough as tax increases and spending cuts actually take effect, reports Tony Dolphin with the February economic update.
Economic update – January 2011
Tony Dolphin, of the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), looks at the state of the economy as we enter the new year.
Economic update – December 2010
There is a widespread view that future growth in the UK economy will be more sustainable if it is driven by net exports and business investment and not by household spending. The third quarter GDP numbers provided mixed news for supporters of this view.
OBR: Recovery “at a slower pace” than in the 70s, 80s and 90s
Tomorrow’s papers will probably note the forecast that, by 2015, public sector employment will fall by 330,000, one hundred and sixty thousand less than the 490,000 forecast in June. 30,000 of the difference is down to “methodological refinements”. The remaining 130,000 reduction is because the Spending Review cut more from social security and less from Departmental budgets than OBR expected – a different balance of misery, rather than a genuine improvement.
What would happen if Spain follows Ireland over the edge?
On Monday the big news of the day was the Ireland bailout. Yesterday, the follow-on story was Portugal’s general strike which could push the country over the edge. But the nagging doubt in everyone’s minds in the European power-centres today will be neither: it will be the much worse possibility, remote or otherwise, that Spain might follow: Spanish euro spreads reached a record 260 basis points yesterday, making it is very expensive for Spain to borrow.