Budget 2013: Has Osborne got the right fiscal/monetary policy mix?

BUDGET 2013

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In his Budget, Chancellor George Osborne described the UK strategy as one of monetary activism and fiscal responsibility

However, the world is coming round to the idea that a tight fiscal, loose monetary policy mix is unlikely to support a recovery in growth when interest rates are close to zero and consumers are intent on paying down debt. A more effective approach would be to ease back on austerity until a recovery is well under way. The current policy mix, leaning ever more heavily on unconventional easing by an unleashed Bank of England, risks a continued slide in the value of the pound and a more extended period of stagflation. The UK's ambitious fiscal tightening plans gained plaudits from the Intern...

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