UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves Delivers First Major Policy Speech, Stresses Spending Control and Growth

UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves delivered her first major policy speech since taking office on September 7 at a manufacturing center in Coventry, stressing the need to be honest about controlling public spending and making growth the government’s core mission. According to Sina Finance, she said fiscal credibility and growth goals are inseparable. Reeves said she wants the UK to become a country that creates wealth, supporting business investment and profits. According to Sina Finance, she reaffirmed that the government will follow its fiscal rules and keep room to respond to uncertainty, while warning Labour lawmakers to accept tighter public spending limits. She also outlined plans to remove barriers to investment by narrowing judicial review, cutting corporate red tape, and addressing a culture of risk aversion inside government. According to Sina Finance, she said public financial institutions will increase investment in the private sector, and announced a new 150 million-pound growth fund for northern England. Reeves said the UK was the fastest-growing G7 economy in the first half of this year, but that the outlook remained fragile. According to Sina Finance, she told counterparts at a recent G20 finance ministers' meeting in North Carolina that the UK was turning a corner. As of the morning of September 7, the yield on 10-year UK government bonds stood at 5.15%, up 0.02 percentage point, after easing from a 2008 high of 5.29% at the end of last week. According to Sina Finance, Conservative shadow finance minister Andrew Griffith criticized Reeves and said talk about growth would not make growth happen.