Plan B
The chancellor charts a new fiscal course for the bumpy Brexit years
IT HAD been trailed for months, but in a speech on October 3rd Philip Hammond confirmed that he would no longer seek to eliminate Britain’s budget deficit by 2020. Instead, the chancellor said, fiscal policy would reflect “the new circumstances we face”. With the prospect of an economic slowdown caused by the Brexit vote, he said there was a case for “careful, targeted public investment in high-value infrastructure”, in order to boost demand.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Plan B”
From the October 8th 2016 edition
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