The UK Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) has called for tax hikes and spending cuts to curb the monarchy’s ailing finances as the country plunges more and more into the crisis; predicting that the United Kingdom must come up with an extra USD 123 billion to pay the escalating costs of the growing number of the elderly citizens.
The OBR’s tax hike request comes at a time when the angry protesters repeatedly take to the streets across the UK as well as other debt-ridden European countries, asking their leaders to make decisions to their benefit.
The economic outlook for other EU member countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain seems to remain dim as well.
According to the Moody’s rating agency, “fragile market confidence and risk of contagion from financial problems in Greece and Spain have increased the risks Italy faces.”
Meanwhile, infuriated by the country’s new spending cuts, angry and frustrated Spanish public workers took to the streets, chanting “This is theft, hands up!”
“All the measures taken by the government, is like they are fighting the people; they are trying to solve it by handing assistance to big companies, [but] we are the ones who need assistance.” Said a Spanish public worker, taking part in the protests.
In an interview, the former Counsel to the US Senate Finance Committee told Press TV that, “Also you can not devalue your currency in order to pull out of this [financial crisis], all you can do is to cut your budget and continue to deregulate your industry,” continuing, “and so there is no real easy way out.”
Meantime, in an exclusive interview with Press TV, the former member of European Parliament, Giulietto Chiesa, said that, “the United States like Europe, is at the end of a long period of the happiness,” adding that, “It is the end of a social pact.”
Various EU member states have been struggling with a deep economic stagnancy since the bloc’s financial crisis began roughly five years ago, forcing some of the most affected nations to adopt unbearable austerity measures to be eligible to get the EU bailouts.
MY/JR
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