Budget gossip and U-turns to blame for UK’s weak growth, says former bank chief economist

speculations about the future Budget Weaker than expected economic growth data is partly responsible for Concern over tax increase Impact on business and consumer spending, former top economist Bank of England has warned.

andy haldanewho was chief economist at the bank until 2021, told Sky News’ Mornings with Ridge and Frost that further construction Budget It has been a “circus” and there have been calls to overhaul the process to stop leaks that are damaging the economy.

It follows last week’s official data, which showed economic growth slowed to 0.1 percent in the third quarter, down from 0.3 percent in the previous three months and worse than most economists had predicted.

chancellor Rachel Reeves accused of poor performance jaguar land rover Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the wake of its cyber attackgross domestic product) declined 0.1 percent during September after activity in the manufacturing sector was hit.

But Mr Haldane said the budget rumors had “without a doubt” a direct impact on growth.

He told Sky News that the upcoming Budget is a “real circus that has been going on in the city for several months”.

He said: “This has disappointed businesses and consumers.

“One of the reasons our growth numbers were very weak last week is because of budget speculation… (it) has reduced people’s willingness to spend.

“And first and foremost, we need to stop that speculation.”

He added: “If you talk to businesses, talk to consumers, their fear of where the ax will fall is leading them, inappropriately, to not put their balance sheets to work, to save rather than spend.

“And that has slowed growth in the economy.”

He urged the Finance Ministry to decisively end “that speculation, that harmful speculation that is slowing down growth”.

Mr Haldane said: “We have almost daily speculation about the next tax rise.

“And we need to re-engineer that process to either make it unquestionable, like the Bank of England’s monetary policy decisions, or have truly open consultation.

“Right now, we have this half-built house of leaks and speculation that serves absolutely no one. Least of all for the economy.”

On her performance so far, Mr Haldane said Ms Reeves had been “badly played, in fact, very poorly played”.

The Treasury has been contacted for comment.