Alistair Darling calls the end of the recession
Chancellor Of The Exchequer Alistair Darling will tomorrow call the end of UK recession confirming his belief that the economy will move into positive territory around the turn of the New Year. He will make his forecast in a Guardian article to be published ahead of the G20 meeting in which he will appreciate there are still risks to the worldwide economy, but he believes the UK will follow the likes of Germany, Japan and France towards a recovery path.
However, in a surprising turnaround, Alistair Darling has also pledged an extra £7 billion for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assist countries around the world who are struggling to recover. This comes at a time in the UK taxpayer has seen a fuel tax increase of two pence a litre, VAT reductions set to be reversed and UK income tax rates to be increased in the short to medium term. To say that UK taxpayers will be annoyed by the £16 billion, which has been handed over to the IMF this year, would be an understatement.
Only months after concerns that the UK government would have to go cap in hand to the IMF for additional funding, it seems that the UK government is now prepared to finance the recovery of other countries around the world. Bizarre!
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