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With the announcement by newly arrived finance chief Jeremy Hunt, international markets made significant gains, confident that the repeal of the so-called ‘mini-budget’ pushed by Prime Minister Liz Truss will reassure investors. For their part, the reaction of the British was negative, as they fear that the cost of living will continue to rise and that the economic problems will be irreparable.
The announcement to repeal most of the ‘mini-budget’ came as positive news for the stock market but fell as a negative statement for British citizens, who say they are tired of the constant controversies and changes in the offices of their main leaders.
The British people rightly want stability, which is why we are addressing the serious challenges we face in worsening economic conditions.
We have taken action to chart a new course for growth that supports and delivers for people across the United Kingdom. https://t.co/P3yglx6efZ
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 17, 2022
European stock markets closed in positive territory on Monday, October 17, with their three main indicators posting significant gains. The most famous indicator of the United Kingdom, the Footsie 100, advanced 0.90% after the announcement of the fiscal change.
Wall Street and the Asian stock markets also had green numbers and the pound sterling continues its path of stabilization after the turbulent days that the British Government has experienced. This Monday’s announcement is the first major change made by the new finance minister after being appointed last Friday, October 14.
“I think the Conservative Party as a whole has to do a huge rethink, not just for the country but also for the Conservative Party. They are in a terrible mess. I don’t really know what went wrong. It’s frightening. But where do we go? I mean, we are now a third world country in all things: politics, wealth, health, and the elderly. It’s all going downhill too fast. It has to stop,” said Ernest Lee, a British pensioner interviewed by the AP news agency.
Among other issues, the plan seeks a collection of 36,000 million dollars annually, the elimination of income tax and the reduction of the plan to cap the price of energy, changes that would make the Bank of England resume the sale of corporate bonds.
However, the problem seems to be not just something to solve from the government’s finances.
For Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics, it is a combination of economic and political problems that sooner or later the British government will have to face separately: “I think this is quite an unparalleled situation. Politics and economics British pound seizures from time to time, as many countries do, sometimes because of an economic crisis, there have been a number of sterling crises in the UK over the years, economic crises, and sometimes political crises But the two together where there is a crisis.”
With AP and Reuters
