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As the UK economy begins to shrink for the first time in 16 years, the two main political parties have been arguing over whether the public finances are stronger or weaker now than they were at the outset of the last recession in 1990 and when Labour came to power in 1997. This note looks at a couple of key indicators of the health of the public finances in historical and international perspective to assess this.

    Authors

    Carl Emmerson
    Carl Emmerson

    Deputy Director

    Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, an expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.

    Report details

    DOI
    10.1920/bn.ifs.2008.0079
    Publisher
    IFS

    Suggested citation

    R, Chote and C, Emmerson and G, Tetlow. (2008). The UK public finances: ready for recession?. London: IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/uk-public-finances-ready-recession (accessed: 15 June 2025).

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