George Osborne set to delay austerity measures
In a sign of weakness or potentially a sign of commonsense, depending upon how you look at George Osborne and the coalition government, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has indicated he is prepared to stagger austerity measures over the next four years. Growing concern that a short-term bout of austerity measures could put at risk any potential recovery in the UK economy appears to be behind this potential change of strategy by George Osborne - which would be welcomed by many across the political spectrum.
It is also believed that George Osborne is in favour of reintroducing the quantitative easing programme which has so far cost the Bank of England £200 billion, with a further £50 billion rumoured to be on the cards. This "printing of money" is effectively a means of ensuring that the UK money markets do not dry up and finance is readily available to UK businesses and UK consumers in the ongoing attempt to refloat the UK economy.
This potential change of tack by George Osborne is a surprise bearing in mind the very determined tone of his speeches over the last few months. However, if the UK economy is in danger of falling back towards a double-dip recession then does he really have any choice?
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