Hunt’s Growth Drive Leaves ‘Wafer Thin’ Margin as UK Poll Looms
- Chancellor leaves smallest fiscal headroom in OBR history
- Fiscal watchdog still sees record fall in living standards
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt put economic growth at the heart of his first full UK budget, with a general election less than two years away and support for the Conservative Party lagging among voters.
But to do so he stretched his fiscal rules to the limit, and on a day of market turmoil triggered by two US bank failures and the crisis around Credit Suisse Group AG, left only the smallest of cushions to respond to potential shocks.