LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reeves said she was looking at both tax rises and spending cuts for her budget on November 26, confirming widely held expectations given her pledges about balancing the country’s books.
Economic forecasters expect Reeves will need to raise about 30 billion pounds ($40.1 billion) through tax increases at the budget, after the government’s borrowing costs jumped by more than expected, a plan to cut welfare costs was dropped and signals that growth forecasts will need to be lowered.
“Challenges are being thrown our way…I won’t duck those challenges,” Reeves told Sky News on Wednesday.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor.”
Reeves has repeatedly said she is committed to “economic responsibility” and will stick to her fiscal rules, the main one of which is her target of balancing day-to-day public spending with tax revenues by 2030.
Before July 2024’s election, Reeve’s Labour party promised not to raise value added tax (VAT), national insurance contributions or the rates of income tax, but there is growing speculation those promises may be broken.
($1 = 0.7483 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young in London and Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
