Responding to the latest public sector borrowing data from the Office for National Statistics, IEA Director General Mark Littlewood said:

“The public finances are in a poor state in the short term and a truly dire state in the long term. Only a policy approach that supercharges economic growth can begin to mitigate the hole in the state sector’s finances. That will require the government to think more seriously about the impact of their tax rises and their failure, to date, to tackle red tape. At some point they will also need to be honest about which areas of state expenditure they are actually going to cut.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Contact: Annabel Denham, Director of Communications, 07540770774

IEA spokespeople are available for further comment.

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.