Darling sets date for pre-Budget report

The Treasury has announced that chancellor Alistair Darling will deliver his pre-Budget report on December 9th.

Mr Darling is expected to offer an updated economic forecast and elaborate on his plans to improve government finances following the bank bailouts and a major decline in tax revenues.

Next month’s pre-Budget report will be the last one before the next general election, which is due to take place by June 2010.

Unveiling the Bank of England’s latest Inflation Report today (November 11th), governor Mervyn King said that the UK’s economic recovery has ’only just started’.

He warned that inflation could ’rise sharply’ over the next months, with VAT set to return to 17.5 per cent on January 1st next year.

Mr King also suggested that the economy is unlikely to return to its pre-recession level until late 2011.

’Small movements in quarterly growth rates will not alter the extent of the challenges now facing the economy,’ he said.
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