Thursday April 23, 08:54 AM
HIGHLIGHTS-UK's Darling post-Budget comments
LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Below are highlights from a series of media interviews with British finance minister Alistair Darling on Thursday, a day after he delivered his second annual Budget.
Below are the key comments from
the interviews:
ON CUTTING DEFICIT
'Borrowing is high. I want to halve that deficit in a five-year period, but to do anything more dramatic than that would cause real pain to people and businesses. If we started to take money out of the economy now, it would slow down the recovery.'
ON PUBLIC SPENDING
'Public spending does need to be rigorously examined. We do need to be rather more efficient. If we don't need to hold on to a particular asset, then we shouldn't.'
ON REACTION TO BUDGET
'I knew for some time that the headlines today would be difficult.'
'Today doesn't look good in terms of headlines -- I was resigned to that.'
ON HIGHER INCOME TAX RATE FOR HIGH EARNERS
'We do need to raise revenue ... I have had to take extraordinary action but these are, I'm afraid, extraordinary times.'
ON GROWTH FORECASTS
'I remain confident that the economy will start to grow before the end of the year.'
'There are a wide range of forecasts. There's a lot of uncertainty around at the present time but I believe the action we have taken now, the money we've put into the economy over the past few months, together with action other countries are taking ... that will have an effect.' Keywords: BRITAIN BUDGET/DARLING
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