Rishi Sunak will reveal the Covid crisis' impact on public finances, says economist
24 November 2020, 19:59
Rishi Sunak will reveal the Covid crisis' impact on public finances, says economist
This is the moment an economist told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty that Rishi Sunak's spending review is set to reveal the scale of the impact the Covid crisis has had on the UK's public finances.
While a spending review usually details how the country's finances will be spent, tomorrow's announcements are expected to focus on how money can be saved to pay for the estimated £350 billion cost of the pandemic so far.
At the weekend, Mr Sunak warned there was a need to find out "what the best way of returning to sustainable public finances is".
This year has left the UK in a difficult position, with the UK economy predicted to be around 10% smaller at the end of this year than it was before the pandemic.
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Dan Tomlinson, who is a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty: "The big picture for tomorrow is we will get to see both the scale of the impact of the crisis on public spending and borrowing this year.
"And we'll get the Government's and the Chancellor's plans for how much spending he thinks will pass through into the next financial year."
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He added: "This is really big stuff. So hundreds of billions of pounds have been spent this year by Government departments [and] on support schemes..."
He then said: "So we think borrowing might reach something in the region of 20% of GDP this year, which is peaking twice as high as it did after the financial crisis."
