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Government borrowing less than forecast

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Comments

  • Generali
    Generali Posts: 36,411 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    JP45 wrote: »
    The question is what will the government do with this unexpected windfall?

    The following item from the FT sets out the options:




    Personally, I'd bank most of the windfall and use the rest for jobs, growth etc, but I fear that Brown and Chancellor-in-waiting Balls will force Darling to opt for the third - a naked pre-election lollipop for voters.

    I just hope that if that happens, voters will have the sense to see it for what it is.
    .

    you'll get your lollies.
  • Wookster
    Wookster Posts: 3,795 Forumite
    Generali wrote: »
    you'll get your lollies.

    Yup, whatever "surplus" there is will no doubt be given away as an election bribe.
  • ManAtHome
    ManAtHome Posts: 8,512 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 18 March 2010 at 11:41PM
    Quite likley:
    The Times - Alistair Darling given £13 billion budget boost
    Guardian - Hopes for budget giveaway as February borrowing figures improve

    Oh well, only a week to Badger's Last Stand - I suspect the electorate and the markets could have diverging views...

    [edit] we seem to have had a lot of surreal numbers 'bandied' about, was this intended to have been the April 1st thread (or is it just me)?
  • Masomnia
    Masomnia Posts: 19,506 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    My feeling is that Darling will want to do the responsible thing and use the lower borrowing to mean fewer cuts and taxes, and keep gilt yields lower.

    How much pressure Brown will put him under to spend more is uncertain...

    Should be an interesting budget.
    “I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” - P.G. Wodehouse
  • wigglebeena
    wigglebeena Posts: 1,988 Forumite
    Masomnia wrote: »
    My feeling is that Darling will want to do the responsible thing and use the lower borrowing to mean fewer cuts and taxes, and keep gilt yields lower.

    How much pressure Brown will put him under to spend more is uncertain...

    Should be an interesting budget.

    It's all a bloody popularity contest for Brown. The man's mentally a child. Or Sally Fields.
  • aelitaman
    aelitaman Posts: 522 Forumite
    Unemployment falling? Borrowing lower than forecast? House prices rising?

    Whisper it... whisper it....

    "We are out of recession people"

    Time for the sleepy bears to go an hibernate for another few years - pity so many of you missed the Great Crash of 2008.

    Aaaah, the memories....

    We have had the pre-election bribe, next we get the post election slump.
  • Cannon_Fodder
    Cannon_Fodder Posts: 3,980 Forumite
    Good news.

    Our interest payments are slightly under the entire Defence budget, instead of slightly over.

    Whoop.
  • boomerangs
    boomerangs Posts: 284 Forumite
    Joeskeppi wrote: »

    Seems almost too good to be true...
    Funny, that's what I thought too. There's none so blind as those that see.
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