UK chancellor Alistair Darling on Wednesday gambled on a rapid economic recovery and deep spending cuts to regain control of public finances ravaged by the global financial crisis. In an austere Budget that raised taxes on the rich and nearly halved planned spending growth, Darling told parliament that the public finances would not recover to comfortable levels until 2017-18 after borrowing surges to £175bn this year. The UK economy would contract by 3.5% in 2009 but rebound quickly thereafter, he said.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 5:01 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with Alistair Darling. Edit this entry.