Brussels, 06/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 6 July, the European Commission revealed the findings of its assessment of the measures taken by the United Kingdom to comply with the Council recommendations of 2 December 2009 on correcting its excessive government deficit. The Commission concluded that the UK authorities had acted in line with the recommendations, planning to gradually reduce the budget deficit to 2.3% of GDP by 2014-2015, the deadline recommended by the Council.
“The current economic circumstances call for a decisive fiscal consolidation, while not suffocating the nascent economic recovery. The budgetary targets presented by the UK government are in line with this strategy,” said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.
In its emergency budget on 22 June, the new British government announced significant new fiscal tightening, which will reduce the structural deficit by an additional ½% of GDP in 2010/11 and by 2¼% of GDP by 2014/15. As a result, the UK authorities project the headline deficit to fall to 2.3% of GDP by 2014-2015. Around three quarters of the overall reduction in the headline deficit is planned to take place through expenditure reduction. (L.C./transl.rt)