Economics

U.K. May Need $84 Billion of Tax Increases to Balance the Books

  • IFS think tank issues warning ahead of Sunak’s March 3 budget
  • Chancellor urged to refrain from action now, focus on recovery
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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The U.K. could need tax increases of about 60 billion pounds ($84 billion) if Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak wants to balance the books, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The warning sets the tone for the Treasury’s budget on March 3, when Sunak is due to outline how he intends to address the ruinous legacy of a pandemic that has driven government borrowing to its highest in peacetime and forced him to deliver 13 emergency statements since he took office a year ago.