Trussonomics bangs on about growth but it has just made a recession more likely

Chloe McCulloch

Firms were already grappling with severe inflation, an energy crisis and a tight jobs market – now the mini-Budget has made their problems even bigger

“Growth, growth, growth” – this is what Liz Truss is staking her premiership on, and despite a frankly disastrous start as PM, she seems intent on repeating the mantra until we all finally get it. The thing is business does get it. Who would argue with wanting the country’s GDP to grow 2.5% a year? But where the business community – and many economists – disagree with Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is how best to grow the economy and how quickly it can be done.

Last month’s now infamous “fiscal event” shocked and even horrified many of the people we contacted for reaction in the days and weeks that followed. In normal times most media coverage of a Budget announcement – mini or otherwise – focuses on the package of announcements. We would have pored over the details of changes to stamp duty thresholds or the infrastructure projects receiving new (or perhaps renewed) backing. But when Kwarteng’s fiscal bombshell landed, all of that seemed irrelevant as the pound plummeted against the dollar, the Bank of England stepped in to save pension funds, and mortgage lenders removed hundreds of products from the housing market.

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