IMF：英国无需加快财政整顿 财政大臣希利10月28日将发布首份预算
据路透社10月14日自曼谷报道，国际货币基金组织（IMF）财政事务主管罗德里戈·巴尔德斯（Rodrigo Valdes）在IMF与世界银行年会期间表示，IMF并不建议英国加快财政整顿、以更快的速度削减预算赤字。他说：「我们的建议是『保持现有路线』。我们并不是在说『加快整顿步伐』。」IMF总裁克里斯塔利娜·格奥尔基耶娃（Kristalina Georgieva）在记者会上表示，英国是「已经果断采取行动削减赤字的国家之一」；她同时承认，市场对英国借贷表现出「多了一点敏感性」。
英国政府上一财年的预算赤字相当于GDP的4.4%，目标是到2029/30财年实现日常（非投资）支出与税收收入平衡，不过以往多届政府都未能实现类似目标。尽管英国的债务水平低于多数大型发达经济体，其政府借贷成本在上周全球债券抛售潮中触及1998年以来最高水平。英国的税收占GDP比重已接近二战后不久的最高水平。财政大臣约翰·希利（John Healey）于周三抵达曼谷出席年会，他将于10月28日发布其首份年度预算。希利面临的额外支出压力包括更高的债务利息成本，以及国防、能源补贴和不断上升的福利开支需求。被问及英国是否应增税或削减其他开支以供养国防时，巴尔德斯表示，许多欧洲国家面临类似挑战，并称围绕支出背后的社会契约展开讨论「非常、非常紧迫」。
IMF Says Britain Does Not Need to Speed Up Fiscal Consolidation Ahead of October 28 Budget
The International Monetary Fund is not recommending that Britain speed up its fiscal consolidation to reduce its budget deficit faster, IMF fiscal affairs director Rodrigo Valdes said during the IMF-World Bank meetings in Bangkok on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "Our recommendation is 'stay the course'. We are not saying 'accelerate the pace of consolidation',"Valdes said, drawing a contrast with other big economies that have little or no plans to reduce borrowing at a time of rising interest rates. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told a press conference: "The UK is actually one country where action to reduce the deficit has been taken decisively," while acknowledging that markets showed "a bit more sensitivity" to British government borrowing.
The British government ran a budget deficit of 4.4 percent of GDP last year and aims to balance day-to-day non-investment spending with tax revenue by the 2029/30 financial year, though previous governments regularly failed to meet similar goals. Despite lower debt levels than most of the largest advanced economies, British government borrowing costs last week touched their highest since 1998 as part of a global bond selloff. British tax revenue as a share of GDP is close to its highest since just after World War Two.
Finance minister John Healey, who arrived at the IMF meetings on Wednesday, will deliver his first annual budget on October 28. He faces extra spending demands from higher debt interest costs and pressures to spend more on defence and energy subsidies, as well as rising welfare costs. Asked if Britain should raise taxes or cut other areas of spending to fund defence, Valdes said many European countries faced similar challenges, and that the discussion about the social contract behind spending is "very, very urgent."
图片来源：国际货币基金组织总部大楼。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，International Monetary Fund 摄，公共领域
