BRITAIN’S Treasury minister Danny Alexander said on Friday (September 16) the country faced “very challenging times” and it would take time to rebalance its economy, the Financial Times reported.
Britain’s economy has barely grown since last September, and weakening business surveys and financial market turbulence have raised fears of a major downturn.
European finance ministers met in Poland on Friday to discuss the sovereign debt problems of Greece, Ireland, Italy and the wider euro zone. Fears are growing too of the UD falling into recession.
“There is no point trying to disguise from people that these are very challenging times for the British economy,” Alexander was quoted as saying in an interview published on the newspaper’s website.
Asked whether the next election, in 2015, could be fought against a background of economic stagnation, Alexander said: “I hope not, and the forecasts don’t show that.
“But there is a huge rebalancing going on in not just the British economy but in the global economy. Financial imbalances need to be rectified, and that’s something that, as we’re seeing, takes time.”
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was quoted in the Saturday edition of the Independent newspaper as saying: “It is certainly a lot darker now than people might have hoped six, 10 or 12 months ago.”
