国际英语资讯:British chancellor of the exchequer promises to deliver budget measures regardless of Brexit_时事

国际英语资讯:British chancellor of the exchequer promises to deliver budget measures regardless of Brexit

He announced expected GDP growth figures over the next five years, which are now somewhat lower than the historic averages of about 2-2.5 percent because of continued poor productivity improvements in the British economy.

These figures are an improvement on the set of figures for the same period announced by Hammond in his last fiscal statement in March.

The upgraded growth forecasts are 2019, 1.6 percent (1.3 percent forecast in March); 2020, 1.4 percent (1.3 percent); 2021 and 2022 unchanged at 1.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, and a new forecast for 2023 of 1.6 percent.

To improve productivity, Hammond announced 1.6 billion pounds in new investments for an industrial strategy, and 150 million pounds for fellowships to employ talented overseas workers.

Unemployment figures, currently at a low of 4 percent not seen for more than 40 years, are forecast to fall further to 3.7 percent, while employment figures, already near a record high, are anticipated to rise from the current 32.4 million to 33.2 million by the end of 2023.

Government borrowing was forecast to be 11.6 billion pounds lower this financial year than had been forecast at the March statement and was set to fall from 31.8 billion pounds in 2019/20 to 26.7 billion pounds in 2020/21 and to 19.8 billion pounds in 2023/24.

A heavily-trailed commitment to increase spending on the National Health Service (NHS) will include a 10-year plan for a new NHS crisis service, Hammond said. This total extra spending on the NHS across Britain was labelled as a 25 billion-pound real terms increase in spending over the length of this parliament.