Britain yesterday slashed its economic growth forecast for next year to 2.6 percent and cut its public borrowing estimate to £155 billion (US$227.8 billion), according to official data on behalf of the new government.
The growth figure, published by an independent fiscal watchdog set up by British Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition administration, compared with the 3.25 percent expansion that had been forecast by the previous government.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) added in a statement that British GDP was expected to grow by 1.3 percent this year, which marked a slight upward revision.
The state borrowing forecast compared with the previous estimate of £163 billion for the current financial year, which covers the 12 months to April next year.
The new forecasts were published ahead of an emergency budget on Tuesday next week due from British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
Osborne’s emergency budget is expected to unveil deep spending cuts and large taxation rises, as the coalition seeks to slash a public deficit that hit a record £156 billion in the last fiscal year.
The OBR also forecast that GDP would expand by 2.8 percent in 2012, followed by growth of 2.8 percent and 2.6 percent in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The new forecasts do not include the impact of measures recently introduced by Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, which last month ousted the previous Labour administration that was led by former British prime minister Gordon Brown.
The coalition already axed £6.25 billion of “wasteful” public sector spending last month as it sought to cut the deficit.
At the same time, Osborne set up the independent OBR to publish the government’s official economic forecasts.
In related news, Italy’s public debt, one of the highest in the world, reached a record 1.812 trillion euros (US$2.219 trillion) in April, the Bank of Italy said yesterday.
The figure was a 0.8 percent rise on the March level of 1.797 trillion euros, the central bank said, without indicating the percentage of GDP that the figure represents.
Last year, public debt reached 115.8 percent of GDP, and it is forecast to rise to 118.4 percent this year.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS