Is George Osborne heading down the Irish route?
News that the Irish credit rating has been reduced by Moody's was not necessarily a surprise to investors but it does place the UK economy on a similar path. Despite the fact that the Irish authorities introduced various austerity measures some time ago the financial structure of the Irish setup has been weakened, hence the reduction in the credit rating. So is the UK really on a similar path?
First and foremost it is worth remembering that the UK economy is far stronger than its Irish counterpart and indeed there are more opportunities to increase income in a relatively short space of time. As a consequence, so far there are no issues with regards to the refinancing of UK sovereign debt at this moment in time although this may well become more difficult if as expected debt reaches around £1.5 trillion over the next few years. However, at this moment in time the UK government is taking action to reduce the budget deficit and while there will be some form of drag on the UK economy this is unavoidable.
While many believe that David Cameron and his coalition government will be effectively "unelectable" at the next election due to the difficult decisions required in this Parliamentary session, he may well come out of this as some form of hero if he is able to rescue the UK economy and UK finances.
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