Struggling UK families may need help with energy bills as inflation soars, an International Monetary Fund expert has said.
It comes as the IMF predicted that the UK economy will grow more slowly than expected this year as it recovers from the Covid pandemic. The forecast for UK growth in 2022 was cut to 4.7% from 5% in the IMF’s latest world economic outlook.
However, this will be the fastest in the G7 industrialised nations. It partly reflects a rebound from sharp falls the UK suffered during initial pandemic lockdowns two years ago. The International Monetary Fund is an organisation of 190 countries that works to secure financial stability.
Its first deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, told the BBC that targeted help might be needed to help vulnerable households deal with higher energy bills as they face a cost-of-living squeeze. She said: “The UK has done very well on the vaccination front, on testing and tracing and so on.
“All that has to be continued. An argument can be made that, especially for instance, in April, as more of the energy price pass-through happens, then that could be a big, sharp increase in the cost of living. “And one could see a case for very, very targeted help to highly vulnerable households for a short space of time.”
Surging food and energy prices drove inflation to 5.4% in the 12 months to December, up from 5.1% the month before, in a blow to struggling families.
Source: bbc.com
