UK's Truss sticks by economic plan as her party worries

2/10/2022 17:57

        British Prime Minister Liz Truss said Sunday that she could have done a better job “laying the ground” for her package of unfunded tax cuts, but insisted she would push on with an economic plan that has caused turmoil on financial markets and weakened the country’s public finances.
        
        Truss acknowledged that the U.K. faces “a very turbulent and stormy time,” but said her policies would lead to a “high-growth, low-tax economy” in the longer term.
        
        The comments are unlikely to calm Truss’ Conservative Party, which opens its four-day annual conference on Sunday in the central England city of Birmingham amid plunging poll ratings and growing public discontent.
        
        Truss took office less than a month ago, promising to radically reshape Britain’s economy to end years of sluggish growth.
        
        But the government’s Sept. 23 announcement of a stimulus package that includes $50 billion in tax cuts, to be paid for by government borrowing, sent the pound tumbling to a record low against the dollar.