Jul
02 G20 leaders welcome UK budget actions
Leaders of the world's major economies are committed to halving their deficits by 2013. The actions taken in last week’s emergency budget by the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, have been welcomed by the G20 leaders at their summit in Canada.
With the UK having one of the largest deficits the need to take action early was imperative, confirmed by David Cameron in his press conference at the end of the summit - "For some people, particularly countries like Britain with the biggest budget deficit in the G20, that action has to be fiscally consolidated, it has to be sorting out our debts and our deficit so we get confidence in our economy."
The “tough but fair” budget measures have meant tax rises and spending cuts on a significant scale. These have been opposed by the Labour opposition as too much, too soon. Only time will tell.
For businesses, those dealing with the public sector could be worst hit as spending is set to be slashed by up to 25% in many departments. This will have a knock on effect on suppliers. Other business measures in the budget were generally welcomed by the business community as they could have been a lot, lot worse.
Business loans were unaffected by the budget and signs of recovery in the market continue with more lenders and money available.