Merryn Somerset Webb
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
There's absolutely hope.
And I feel you punctured my balloon before I even inserted it there.
Sorry.
Let's start.
Listen, the starting point is not as anyone would wish.
Growth is too low.
Inflation is too high.
And the fiscal position is far too precarious.
That is why...
When the world sneezes, the UK catches a cold.
And this year has been another example of that being the case.
We are a high beta leveraged bet on the global economy.
This year has demonstrated that as if we needed proof.
Nonetheless, and all matters fiscal, I agree with you.
We are in straightened fiscal times.
Our debt stock relative to national income has trebled over the course of this century.
We have yet to run a fiscal surplus this century.
And we're shelling out now north of £100 billion each year just in interest payments.
So I would say there is very little, if any, fiscal space left for
unless some hard choices are made about cutting spending.