–Adds OECD’S Gurria’s Comments On Deficit Reduction

LONDON (MNI) – Next week’s UK budget will focus on tackling
deep-rooted and long-standing weaknesses in the British economy,
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said today.

“This government has set the right course for the British economy
but we have so much more to do… we will stick to the course we have
set out,”Osborne said at a joint event with the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.

“The mission of this year’s budget will be to move from rescue to
reform. If we want Britain to succeed in the global economy, we want to
create the high-quality jobs of the future. We need to overcome some of
the deep-rooted and long-standing weaknesses of the UK economy,”

In a brief speech, Osborne described today’s announcement of a rise
in the UK’s ILO unemployment rate as “disappointing”, but suggested that
there was evidence of a rebalancing toward increased job creation in the
private sector.

“Today’s labour market statistics confirm, as was forecast, a
disappointing rise in unemployment on the ILO measure. But they also
provide more positive evidence of rebalancing,” he said.

“430,000 new private sector jobs have been created in the last
year. More than 70,000 private sector jobs created over the last three
months of 2010 alone, exceeding the 45,000 jobs lost in the public
sector over the period,” he added.

Speaking alongside Osborne, Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the
OECD endorsed the UK’s deficit reduction plan, adding that the UK had to
act “very fast, very decisively” on its fiscal imbalances.

“If you ask me what I prefer, it’s not a choice of a personal
taste, when you are a double-digit (deficit state) … you need to move
very fast, very decisively and you need to let everybody know, have no
doubt whatsoever, where am I going? What is my intention? I’m going to
bring this down,” he said.

Gurria also said that the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee
was “torn” between encouraging high growth through ultra-loose monetary
policy and keeping inflation low.

–London bureau: +4420 7862 7499; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com

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