The UK’s economic decline has plumbed new depths. After an unprecedented decade of wage stagnation and austerity, the inflation crisis has precipitated the largest decline in living standards in the postwar era. And it’s set to get worse.
The Bank of England’s (BoE) grim forecast on 3 November for two years of recession, followed by a paltry 0.75% in growth, was accompanied by the sharpest rise in interest rates in over three decades – pouring fuel on the recessionary fire.
New chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement last week is likely to make matters worse, as he attempts to restore ‘fiscal credibility’ through spending cuts and tax rises in the wake of the ‘Trussonomics’ fiasco. That will only lead to further economic contraction, inevitably hitting the poorest hardest. Britain is in an economic doom loop of the Tories’ making.
