- British finance minister George Osborne
British finance minister George Osborne said on Monday the austerity measures in the U.K. will be extended till 2018, as it will be impossible to cut government's size faster than it was initially planned. In order to cut the budget deficit, deep cuts to welfare with total value of 10 billion pounds will be implemented on top of the 18 billion pounds of savings which were already introduced.
"There are those who say we're cutting too slow .... I'm the chancellor (finance minister) who is cutting the size of government faster than anyone in modern times," said British finance minister George Osborne.
"We're reducing the size of government from almost 50 percent of our national income to just 40 percent in just five years. I just don't think it's realistic to cut a great deal faster than that."
"Osborne's speech shows he is in complete denial about the failure of his plan," Rachel Reeves, who speaks for Labour on Treasury affairs, said in an e-mailed statement.
The FTSE 100 Index declined by 0.50 per cent to 5,841.74. The broader FTSE All-Share Index tumbled 0.53 per cent to 3,051.62.
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