UK’s Sunak confirms budget to be delivered on March 11

Bloomberg

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said he is preparing to deliver the UK budget as planned on March 11, an announcement that ends days of speculation that his sudden appointment to the post last week would force a delay.
“Cracking on with preparations for my first budget on March 11,” Sunak said on Twitter. “It will deliver on the promises we made to the British people — leveling up and
unleashing the country’s
potential.”
Sunak took up the top job at the Treasury on Thursday after his predecessor Sajid Javid dramatically quit following a face-to-face argument with Prime Minister Boris Johnson over who should control the UK’s finance ministry.
The new chancellor, who accepted Johnson’s demand that the prime minister’s team should have more say over tax and spending decisions, is examining whether to keep the fiscal rules agreed last year, or potentially to loosen the purse strings to spend more on state services and infrastructure.

Spending Rules
Under Javid’s guidelines, the government pledged to cut debt, keep public sector net investment below 3% of GDP and not to borrow for day-to-day spending. The former chancellor liked a tweet on Sunday which warned that Britons are already “overtaxed.”
But the change at the Treasury has opened the door for Johnson to rewrite or even scrap those fiscal rules, which Javid fought to establish last year. Prior to quitting, officials said Javid was planning to keep his budget closely aligned to the costings set out in the Conservative election manifesto.
The Javid plan allowed for 100 billion pounds ($130 billion) of spending on infrastructure over the next five years, but if the rules were relaxed, it could open the way for investment in eye-catching projects as Johnson seeks to cement support for his government in former Labour heartlands in the north of England.
The relatively inexperienced Sunak, who was catapulted into the role of chancellor with just four weeks to prepare for the budget, considered whether to delay as he settled into his new job, but the tweet shows he has decided to stick with March 11.
The Treasury separately confirmed Sunak will not travel to the meeting of G-20 finance ministers in Riyadh this month.

UK’s jobs surge as economy
defies Brexit political turmoil
Bloomberg

The UK economy created jobs at an impressive pace in the fourth quarter, defying the political turmoil over Brexit.
The number of people in work rose a larger-than-forecast 180,000, leaving the jobless rate at a four-decade low of 3.8%, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. The numbers will likely reinforce speculation that the Bank of England will refrain from cutting interest rates this year.
The jump came in a quarter that saw a second Brexit deadline missed and Prime Minister Boris Johnson forced to hold a general election to break the parliamentary deadlock. His emphatic victory eased uncertainty, helping the economy avoid contraction after better-than-expected growth in December.
In addition to a pickup in activity since Johnson’s win, the government is preparing to unveil a large fiscal stimulus next month to bolster growth. The pound was little changed after Tuesday’s jobs data.
Risks remain, however. Johnson has ruled out extending the Brexit transition period beyond December 31.
, even if no trade deal is in place.
“The big job gain and an unemployment rate below 4% is a strong rebuttal of the case for easing by the Bank of England, particularly with a fiscal boost on the way..”
–Dan Hanson. The latest snapshot of the labor market suggests conditions remain tight.
Vacancies, which have been falling, rose by 7,000 in the three months through January and employment in the fourth quarter hit a record high, driven by full-time employees. Women accounted for over 80% of employment growth and now make up almost half of the total.
Adjusted for inflation, regular pay climbed above the pre-crisis peak reached in 2008. Total earnings slowed in the fourth quarter, with regular pay rising 3.2% on the year and wages including bonuses gaining 2.9% — the slowest since 2018. However, they are still outpacing inflation of less than 2%.
Productivity, which has languished since the financial crisis, rose 0.3% from a year earlier on an output per hour basis, its second straight quarterly gain.
The number of European Union nationals employed in the U.K. rose by 36,000 from a year earlier, or 1.6%, in the quarter before Britain left the bloc.