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UK/Budget DeficitBack
[Published: Wednesday July 08 2020]

 Budget deficit to surge past £300bn after Sunak stimulus, says IFS

 
LONDON, 08 July. - (ANA) - The UK’s (United Kingdom) budget deficit is set to rise further past the unprecedented £300 billion ($420 billion) mark after chancellor (minister of economy and Finances) Rishi Sunak’s £30 billion spending package of VAT cuts and job support programmes, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank has said.
 
It said such a high pile of debt meant future statements from the chancellor “are likely to involve a less pleasant set of announcements”. Yet the IFS said that with borrowing costs at record lows, “those decisions can – and should – be left for another year”.
 
Sunak today announced another huge round of stimulus measures in a summer statement. He launched a “job retention bonus” programme worth up to £9bn that will pay companies to take back furloughed workers.
 
He slashed VAT in the hospitality and to five per cent for six months. And he announced a holiday for the stamp duty property tax, raising the payment threshold to £500,000.
 
On top of this, he introduced a novel ‘dine out to help out’ scheme which will give people steep discounts if they eat out. This is aimed at helping the bruised hospitality sector.
 
The package could cost up to £30bn, depending on the uptake of the schemes, the Treasury said. It would take total government spending on coronavirus to close to £190bn so far.   - (ANA) -
 
AB/ANA/08 July 2020 - - -
 
 
 

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