Alistair Darling believes the worst is over
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the latest heavyweight to join a growing band of supporters who believe the UK economy is over the worse. Reiterating his view that the UK economy will move back into growth towards the end of 2009 he has been very vocal at the G8 summit of worldwide financial leaders. Slowly but surely there appears to be an improvement in confidence and forecasts for the future have definitely improved over the last few weeks.
However, one potential problem which the UK government may have to contend with prior to and during the election is the need to rein back heavy government investment into the economy and start repaying the significant debt which has been created. We are talking literally trillions of pounds of debt taken on by the UK government at a time when the UK economy was literally on its knees. As we have mentioned on a number of occasions, this will need to be paid back as soon as possible and will certainly mean higher tax rates in the short term - taking in both direct and indirect taxes.
If the UK government can navigate through the next 12 months this could go down as one of the all-time great recoveries in the UK economy.
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