Hamish McRae: Bank and Treasury have little room to manoeuvre as downturn looms

[Legal Beagles]

You are not really supposed to say this, but I don't think it matters very much whether the Bank of England cuts interest rates today or not. The timing of interest-rate changes does affect the financial markets and maybe in the short term the housing market, too. But the big issue is not whether or when rates move but rather the monetary and fiscal room the UK authorities have to offset a downturn. Unfortunately, they do not have as much space to manoeuvre as the Bank and the Treasury would like.

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