Britain’s Economy Looks Better, Feels Worse
Britain gets a better forecast and a no-drama budget. But a “vibecession” still clouds the outlook.
No high-fives yet.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeChancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt had some good news to deliver Wednesday. Inflation, which reached 11.1% in October, is now anticipated to be 2.9% at the end of the year. The economy will shrink by only 0.2% instead of the previous forecast of 1.4%. The UK has swerved a technical recession and public finances are looking tidier.
And yet, as Hunt knows, budgets are also political documents. The purpose of Wednesday’s pre-leaked budget announcement was to telegraph stability and governing competence, which it largely achieved. In fact, the longer Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in power, the more the cult of Boris Johnson feels like a reckless affair and the brief premiership of Liz Truss like a bad dream.