LONDON: The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has endorsed the UK government’s economic strategy.
Speaking at an IMF meeting in Washington she said: “It’s obvious what’s happening in the UK has worked.”
Ms Lagarde played down differences between the IMF calculation of the future deficit and the more optimistic one provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
She said the figures were virtually the same, but just calculated differently.
George Osborne was sharing a panel with Ms Lagarde and German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble when she made the remarks.
“Generally in any election year, the teams that provide the hypotheticals on which future deficits are forecast, err on the side of caution and assume that whatever is announced is not necessarily or inevitably going to happen,” she said.
Ms Lagarde added that the UK authorities had managed to provide the right balance of spending cuts and revenue raising.
“It’s clearly also delivering results, because when we look at the comparative growth rates delivered by various countries in Europe, it’s obvious that what’s happening in the UK has actually worked,” she said.
The IMF had predicted that the UK will have a deficit of £7bn in 2019-20, while the OBR expects there to be a surplus of £7bn.
