UK’s Hunt Hints Growing Economy Sets Stage for Polls Next Spring
(Bloomberg) -- UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt signaled an election may be held as early as spring 2024 by which point he expects the economy to have “turned the corner.”
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Asked on Bloomberg TV at the International Monetary Fund’s meetings in Washington whether the poll will be held in the spring or autumn, before the deadline of January 2025, Hunt said it was “too soon to answer.”
But he added that all official forecasters, including the IMF, expect the UK to have moved on from the current difficult patch and to be growing “in a year’s time,” and for inflation to be under control at around 3%.
His comments follow signals from ministers, who have briefed UK media, that the government would want to wait for the economy to strengthen before calling an election, which had earlier raised the prospect of an autumn poll.
The chancellor also criticized the IMF for being too pessimistic about the UK in its outlook. It expects the UK to shrink 0.3% this year, the weakest of all Group of Seven industrialized nations, and grow just 1% in 2024.
“We will do better than that,” Hunt said. “Our forecasts are significantly better.”
Read more: UK to Suffer Bigger Unemployment Jump Than Euro Zone, IMF Says
Britain’s prospects will be helped by the Windsor Framework, the new trading arrangement for Northern Ireland recently agreed between the European Union and the UK, Hunt added.
The deal “removes a major irritant in our relationship with the EU,” he said. On a trade deal with the US, he said it was “not something we think is imminent, we will wait until the time is right.”
The last time the UK attended the IMF meetings in October, Liz Truss’s short-lived government had triggered a financial panic. She appointed Hunt as chancellor to calm markets before stepping down. She was replaced by Rishi Sunak.
Hunt said it was “obviously a very difficult period for the UK” but the “page has turned on that” and that finance ministers attending this week’s meetings “have a lot of confidence in the UK.”
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