London | Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves clawed back £14 billion ($28.6 billion) worth of fiscal room with cuts to welfare and government spending, after the UK’s growth forecast for the current year was cut in half.
Reeves was forced to lay out a package of spending moves on Wednesday as part of her midyear statement on the condition of the UK public finances. Driving her decision to cut was a sharp downgrade in growth by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which now expects gross domestic product to expand by just 1 per cent this year. That compares with its previous forecast of 2 per cent.
