Hammond tried hard to disguise the gloomy picture in a 30-minute Spring Statement where he repeated his line about “seeing light at the end of the tunnnel.” That’s a hint he may throw some more money at public services and pay in the Autumn, when he’ll unveil fiscal changes and the country will be mere months away from Brexit day in March 2019. By then it will be clear if the U.K. will have sealed a deal with the EU on a grace period of two years designed to give companies time to adapt to Brexit.
Hammond Tries to Talk Up U.K., But Numbers Don't Back Him
- Tuesday, Mar 13 2018
Philip Hammond tried to talk up the U.K. economy, but the numbers don’t back him up. In 2021, when the U.K.’s Brexit transition will have ended, the government’s budget watchdog lowered its growth forecast. What’s more, it looks like the country is going to be paying money to the European Union for decades to come, well into 2060. The U.K. chancellor is in an bind: voters are angry after eight years of austerity but Hammond lacks the resources to be able to significantly relax the pain. At the same time his Conservative Party is deeply divided on how to tackle Brexit, and he falls firmly in the camp of those in the party that fear there is no bright side to quitting the world’s biggest trade bloc.