Just as it was gearing up for roast swan and chestnut stuffing the pound suffered a setback in December. There was no single point of failure. It was the result of a combination of factors, some serious, some less so. The UK economy bore some of the blame. Some 33,000 public sector employees were laid off in a single month and none of them found new jobs in privately-owned firms. It was not what the chancellor had promised: he had promised the private sector would take up the slack. In November the public sector net borrowing requirement - the gap between tax revenues and public spending - hit a record £22.8 billion, not a clear sign that the government would be able to close the budget gap within five years. Economic growth in the third quarter of the year was downgraded from 0.8% to 0.7%...
Posts
