Britain will start negotiations to leave the EU in March next year. According to new estimates issued by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) last Wednesday, the cost of BREXIT is going to be quite high. Between 2017-8, the OBR forecasts that the UK’s national debt will climb to a 52-year high. Over the next five years, the UK government will have to borrow an additional 122 billion pounds (approximately 4.88 trillion NT dollars) and GDP growth is expected to be 2.4 percent lower.
The OBR’s latest estimates were reported in Parliament by Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in the first budget statement by British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government since Britain’s referendum in June to leave the EU. The OBR predicts UK GDP growth will fall from this year’s 2.1 percent to 1.4 percent next year.
The OBR’s report warns that over the next five years Britain must borrow an extra 122 billion pounds on top of the forecast figure. Former chancellor George Osborne had originally aimed to achieve a budget surplus of 10.4 billion pounds in the fiscal year 2019-2020. The British government now expects the deficit to reach 22 billion pounds.
Photo: Reuters
照片：路透社
(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)
英國明年三月將啟動脫歐談判，據英國預算責任局上週三提供的最新估算，脫歐代價相當高，包括二O一七至二O一八年英國債務將攀至五十二年來最高、未來五年必須額外舉債一千二百二十億英鎊（約四兆八千八百億台幣）、且國內生產總值成長率減少二點四個百分點。
這份英國預算責任局發布的最新預測，由英國財長韓蒙德向議會報告，為梅伊政府於六月公投脫歐之後的首份預算。該局估計，英國國內生產總值成長率將由今年的百分之二點一降至明年的百分之一點四。
英國預算責任局報告還警示，未來五年英國將必須較先前所預測的額外借款一千二百二十億英鎊。前英國財長奧斯本原本目標是在二O一九至二O二O年會計年度實現預算盈餘一百零四億英鎊，但英國目前預測財政赤字將達二百二十億英鎊。
(自由時報記者楊芙宜)
Have you ever gazed at the night sky and felt as though the Moon loomed larger than usual? Your eyes were not deceiving you. The Moon’s apparent size can __1__ subtly depending on where it is in its orbit. On certain occasions, it reaches its fullest phase while at its closest point to Earth. When these two events __2__, scientists and the public refer to the spectacle as a “supermoon.” The Moon does not orbit our planet in a perfect circle. Instead, it travels along a more oval-shaped __3__, completing one full orbit every 27 days. Consequently, there are times when
US President Donald Trump has renewed his ambition to take control of Greenland for national security reasons and questioned whether Denmark has any legal right to the Arctic island. The debate has revived scrutiny of how Greenland became part of Denmark, its current self-rule and path to independence, and Washington’s military footprint. HOW DID DENMARK GET GREENLAND? Greenland was inhabited by Inuit peoples from Asia and North America intermittently from around 2,500 BC. Around 985 AD, Vikings led by Erik the Red settled in southern Greenland, farming and building churches. Around the same time, ancestors of today’s Inuit arrived, living as hunters
A: Aside from K-pop, what were the English chart-toppers? B: Billboard’s top three singles for 2025 were “Die with a Smile” by Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars, “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar/SZA and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. Plus, pop diva Mariah Carey’s 1994 megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” won its 20th and 21st weeks at No. 1, becoming the longest-running No. 1 song in history. A: How about in Taiwan? The news says nine of the 10 most-streamed songs on Spotify Taiwan were Korean. B: Yup, and the top three were: “Winter Ahead” by BTS’ V and Park
AI-generated summaries are shaking up the media world. Tools like Google’s AI Overviews now provide users with direct answers above the search results, resulting in fewer people clicking on news links. For publishers who rely on that traffic to generate advertising revenue, this shift is hitting hard. The fallout is measurable. Many sites have seen a sharp drop in traffic since AI summary features rolled out. An analysis revealed that a news outlet that had once ranked first on Google lost up to 79% of its traffic when its link appeared beneath an AI-generated summary. Statistics also show that
RSS