Britain is facing higher taxes if the chancellor is to meet his goal of eliminating the budget deficit by 2020, a survey of leading economists by The Times has found.
An overwhelming majority of 55 economists polled by the paper said that George Osborne would either have to abandon his self-imposed mandate or inflict more austerity. Among the six former Bank of England policymakers who responded, five predicted that the chancellor would miss his target.
Sir Christopher Pissarides, a Nobel laureate and professor at the London School of Economics, agreed with the majority and added that austerity “tops everything” as a risk to growth.
The chancellor’s fiscal charter, which came into force only in October, states that the budget must be in surplus by 2019-20.