British Treasury chief described as ‘the wrong man in the wrong place’

According to local media, the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, says Britain’s economy will grow less this year and the next as the country is bracing itself for drastic austerity cuts.

Osborne, the Treasury Secretary, admitted that the economy will grow half as fast this year as forecast only three months ago, as he presented his budget plan to the parliament. He described the budget as a plan for Britons who “aspire to work and get on”.
The Treasury chief also unveiled plans to boost the housing market by providing interest-free loans to would-be home owners buying new properties and offering guarantees to lenders to get £130billion of mortgages.
Osborne said he hoped the Bank of England would change and adopt new policies to stimulate the sluggish economic situation.
He pledged to cut corporation tax to 20 percent from April 2015 – to show Britain was “open for business” – and crack down on tax avoidance.
In his fourth budget, Osborne said the forecast for growth in 2013 had been cut to 0.6 percent from the 1.2 percent.
Fresh data showed that mortgage lending fell in February compared with January, with unemployment rising for the first time in 12 months – by 7,000 to more than 2.5 million.
Osborne said: “I will be straight with the country – another bout of economic storms in the eurozone would hit Britain’s economic fortunes hard.”