LONDON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond on Wednesday unveiled his spring budget, raising taxes and revealing that Britain's public debt had fallen.
Hammond also said that the British economy is expected to grow 2 percent this year, and that public borrowing will be 16.4 billion pounds (20 billion U.S. dollars) lower than expected at the time of the last economic statement, in the autumn.
The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), the official independent statistics body, expects the economy to be the same size in 2021 as before, but the growth will be better in the near-term, and worse later on.
In addition, the expected budget deficit of 16.8 billion pounds in 2021/22 is little changed from the previously anticipated 17.2 billion pounds.
The stronger nature of growth in the wake of the Brexit vote and its continuance into 2017 is also reflected in the public sector borrowing figures, with borrowing for this financial year (2016/17) forecast to be 51.7 billion pounds (down from 68.2 billion pounds previously forecast).
Hammond said the British economy "continues to confound the commentators".
He added: "As we start our negotiations to exit the European Union, this budget takes forward our plan to prepare Britain for a brighter future. It provides a strong and stable platform for those negotiations."
Hammond hit self-employed workers with a tax blow, increasing their health insurance tax by 2 percent for low middle income earners and above. This will affect 2.5 million workers.
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