The chancellor’s mini-budget “complicated matters” for the Bank of England as it battled to bring down inflation, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist has told Sky News.
In an interview at the IMF’s annual meetings in Washington, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas warned the coming years would “not be very pleasant” for the global economy.
He also said the tax cuts announced by Kwasi Kwarteng late last month threatened to cause “problems” for the UK economy, coming as they did when the Bank was attempting to raise interest rates.
“When the mini-budget was announced at the end of September, there was a concern on our side,” he said.
“While the impulse to protect households and businesses and try to stimulate growth… are great objectives that we would very much support, at the same time, there was the sense that the budget, as it was announced, was suggesting a very stimulative effect in the short run, and something that would have complicated matters for the Bank of…
