I mean, one part of the economy the government (or, parliament at least) has control of is the money supply, which is pretty much the sole driver of inflation.
If he’d genuinely wanted to (not necessarily saying he should’ve) he could’ve.
If you literally mean the amount of money in circulation, then nah. In the UK that’s within the Bank of England’s purview, and they are independent of the government.
In terms of macroeconomic tools like quantitive easing and LIBOR rates, yes the big tools are outside the Chancellors control.
What Whitehall can do is increase the government’s supply of money to the economy as a whole by deficit spending to stimulate commerce. Build some overdue infrastructure, increase universal credit payouts, raises for teachers or firefighters, government backed low cost loans for developing industries/councils, etc are tools that are available
I mean, one part of the economy the government (or, parliament at least) has control of is the money supply, which is pretty much the sole driver of inflation. If he’d genuinely wanted to (not necessarily saying he should’ve) he could’ve.
If you literally mean the amount of money in circulation, then nah. In the UK that’s within the Bank of England’s purview, and they are independent of the government.
In terms of macroeconomic tools like quantitive easing and LIBOR rates, yes the big tools are outside the Chancellors control.
What Whitehall can do is increase the government’s supply of money to the economy as a whole by deficit spending to stimulate commerce. Build some overdue infrastructure, increase universal credit payouts, raises for teachers or firefighters, government backed low cost loans for developing industries/councils, etc are tools that are available