Chancellor John Healey will use meetings at the IMF in Bangkok this week to call on major economies to set out credible plans for controlling borrowing, while making the case for resilience and international cooperation.
The trip comes little more than two weeks before the 28 October Budget and includes a planned meeting with Ukraine’s finance minister, Reuters reported.
Separately, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that tax rises or welfare savings worth about £36 billion could be needed if the Chancellor fully offsets the public-finance effects of higher inflation and meets the government’s defence commitments. That is IFS modelling, not an official Treasury or Office for Budget Responsibility forecast. The institute also sees a possible revenue improvement that could leave around £20 billion of headroom.
Why it matters: The pre-Budget argument turns on which numbers are forecasts, which are estimates, and which are political choices about services, defence and household incomes.
