The FTSE 100 index of leading UK companies has continued to fall as market traders await the unveiling of the 2011 Budget this lunchtime.
According to the latest FTSE 100 figures London equities continued to slide, with the leading firms falling to 14.17 points. Aviva, the insurance group, saw the largest fall as its stock fell by 4.2%.
City traders are now waiting for George Osborne to announce the Budget at 12.30pm; the chancellor is expected to announce plans to further reduce the UK’s public spending deficit, and the implicit cuts will affect Britain’s fiscal position.
Amit Kara, economist at UBS, told the Financial Times that: “The chancellor is likely to tell us that the fiscal deficit for 2010-11 will be a little lower than forecast, but that the Office for Budget Responsibility has revised down its growth forecast for this year.
“These deviations are too small to alter the path of the fiscal adjustment set out by the chancellor in June last year, but that, of course, does not imply that the bigger question of economic growth in a period of fiscal austerity is dead.”
© Crimson Business. Ltd 2011