Economists criticised the government’s current economic policy, plan for the national insurance increase, and the banks handling of inflation in Treasury Committee hearing
In a Committee meeting on Monday, Lord O’Neill of Gatley, Jim O’Neill stated that the central banks acted too late to tame inflation and now have to raise interest rates ‘aggressively simply to restore their credibility’.
The former Conservative Treasury minister also criticised the government’s economic policy calling the level of interest rates ‘ridiculous’ and its management of the budget ‘nuts’. O’Neill stated that officials don’t ‘have the slightest idea what has really happened or what is going on’ with surging inflation because it is about ‘a lot of complex forces’.
The oral evidence session also featured economists and included the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Jagjit Chadha OBE, chair of Capital Economics Roger Bootle, and director of Prime Economics Ann Pettifor with the session focusing on the topics of jobs, growth, and productivity after Covid-19.
