British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond (C) Nike Air Max 2017 Sale , accompanied by staff members, poses for photos before leaving 11 Downing Street to deliver the budget to Parliament in London, Britain on Nov. 22, 2017. Hammond unveiled the principal budget for the coming year on Wednesday against a backdrop of Brexit uncertainty and subdued economic growth. (XinhuaStephen Chung)
LONDON Nike Air Max 2018 Sale , Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The autumn budget from British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond was labeled "cautious" by experts.
Hammond unveiled the principal budget for the coming year on Wednesday against a backdrop of Brexit uncertainty and subdued economic growth.
ECONOMIC BACKGROUND IS SUBDUED
Amit Kara, head of UK macroeconomic research, National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) told Xinhua on Wednesday that Hammond had seen his room for manoeuvre narrow since the last budget in March this year, and growth was subdued.
The projected growth rate for 2017 was cut from 2 percent to 1.5 percent and future years have also been scaled down from forecasts made at the time of the last budget in March.
"Growth is averaging 1.4 percent over the next five years... so to that extent the budget is cautious because the Chancellor is under a lot of pressure to spend more money Nike Air Max 90 Sale , or indeed to give more tax breaks," said Kara.
Hammond has been Chancellor since July 2016, and inherited a government budget that had been pruned by spending cuts and tax cuts over seven years by his predecessor George Osborne.
Public employees like police, fire and health workers had all had below-inflation pay rises for several years and the cut back of government services and spending has proved unpopular among some parts of the public.
However Nike Air Max Sale , Hammond had little cash to spend because a downward revision in the forecasts for productivity growth over the next five years meant that GDP growth was also revised down.
Hammond did spend on infrastructure and announced plans for research and development investment.
"He has done some of that (spending) but he still has a little bit of room on his fiscal rules," said Kara.
"So altogether I think I would say it was cautious, but of course we need to recognize that the UK is facing a major potential shock in the shape of Brexit, so it is prudent to be cautious at this point."
Less tax income because of the downgrade in forecasts for economic growth means that plans for government spending have taken a hit.
Kara said that the projections for the fiscal deficit had deteriorated significantly since the last budget in March.
"This revision is in spite of better-than-expected recent outturns and because of weaker GDP growth prospects and some modest relaxation of fiscal consolidation Air Max 2017 Sale ," said Kara.
"As a result, around half of the fiscal headroom that was available to the government under the 'fiscal mandate', which requires the government to achieve a structural deficit below 2 percent by 2020-21, has been wiped out."
PRODUCTIVITY PUZZLE
The low rate of improvement in productivity in Britain since the financial crisis has now been acknowledged by the economic forecasters and by the Chancellor.
The most significant outcome of Hammond's budget is that GDP growth and government spending have both been revised down as a result of lower forecasts for productivity growth.
The official statistics watchdog the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Wednesday explained why it had downgraded productivity expectations Air Max 2018 Sale , after years of believing that the growth would return to the long-term trend of 2 percent per year.
Robert Chote, OBR chairman, told journalists at a press conference in London that a pattern of unexpectedly strong employment growth and unexpectedly weak productivity growth has been a consistent feature of our forecasts for some time.
"Productivity growth has been far weaker since the financial crisis than it was for decades beforehand. Output per hour has risen by just 0.2 percent a year since 2008, compared to an average of 2.1 percent a year over the preceding 35 years Air Max 90 Sale ," said Chote.
Chote said it was now clear that more weight needed to be placed on the weak performance of the recent period as a guide to the outlook for the next few years, "but without abandoning hope of a recovery altogether".
Weak productivity growth has been, and remained, a global phenomenon and not purely a domestic one Air Max Sale , although the performance in Britain was weaker than most, said Chote.
He added: "Back in March we assumed that potential productivity growth would pick up gradually to 1.8 percent a year by the end of the forecast, only a little below the historic average rate. But we now assume that trend productivity growth picks up to 1.2 percent by 2022, taking actual productivity growth up to 1.3 percent."
Kara said: "Productivity has just been a huge puzzle in Britain. That weakness has been on for such a long time that it is difficult to ignore that altogether. So the OBR have it growing at slightly above 1 percent. Our own forecast is 1 percent Nike Air Max 2017 Sale Online , so we are slightly more pessimistic than they are about productivity."
Kara said the government and the OBR had come closer to NIESR's own forecast, but it could not be certain who was right.
It is possible that productivity bounces back to its pre-crisis level, said Kara, and also that it could stay weak for longer.
"It is a huge judgment whichever way it goes Nike Air Max 2018 Sale Online ," he said.
REACTION TO BUDGET MEASURES
Hammond's plan for 44 billion pounds (about 58.5 billion U.S. dollars) of investment, loans and guarantees over five years to boost the annual amount of new homes built to 300,000 in the middle of the next decade was criticized by some.
The industry magazine Construction News said it was unsure how much of the money would actually be spent.
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