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George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a speech in the City: ‘We have all had to revise down our short-term expectations over recent weeks.’ Industrial production for the United Kingdom fell by 0.2 per cent in July. House prices, according to the Halifax,
fell by 1.2 per cent from July to August.
The Dixons group reported a like-for-like fall in sales of 7 per cent against a year earlier. Twenty economists wrote a letter to the Financial Times saying that the 50p tax rate was inflicting ‘lasting damage’ on the British economy. Mr Osborne, and Eric Pickles the Communities Secretary, defended, in a joint article in the Financial Times, proposals to loosen the planning system in England, which had aroused hostility from the National Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England: ‘No one should underestimate our determination to win this battle,’ the politicians wrote.
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National Savings and Investments discontinued sale of its index-linked bond, which protects savers from the effects of inflation.
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