LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng still aims to make a fiscal statement before the end of the month but a date will not be set until after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 19, a spokesman for Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Tuesday. “We aim to have a fiscal event […]
LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng still aims to make a fiscal statement before the end of the month but a date will not be set until after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 19, a spokesman for Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Tuesday.
“We aim to have a fiscal event this month,” the spokesman told reporters, repeating the government’s position.
Kwarteng is likely to use the statement – which is expected to come next week – to say how he will deliver the tax cuts promised by Truss during her campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party.
He will also explain how a plan to cap surging energy prices, which was announced by Truss last week, will be funded.
The price cap, which could fuel higher spending by consumers over the medium term, combined with Truss’s plans to reverse increases in social security contributions and corporation tax, will add to inflation pressure in Britain, economists have said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bank of America revised up its forecast for the peak in Bank of England interest rates to 4% from a previous estimate of 3.25%, citing the inflationary impact of the fiscal stimulus plans.
Britain’s parliament is due to go into recess on Sept. 22 and only return in October, making next week the most likely date for Kwarteng’s announcement which he is expected to make in the House of Commons.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, writing by William Schomberg , editing by Elizabeth Piper)
