Philip Hammond, the UK’s newly appointed chancellor of the exchequer, said the vote to leave the European Union had “rattled confidence” and that he will take “whatever measures” needed to shore up the British economy.
“The number one challenge is to stabilise the economy, send signals of confidence about the future, the plans we have for the future to the markets, to business, to international investors,” Hammond said in a Sky News interview on Thursday.
Hammond’s comments came ahead of a meeting later on Thursday of Bank of England policy makers who will debate whether to reduce the key interest rate for the first time since 2009.
The Bank’s governor, Mark Carney, is seeking to stave off further turmoil after the pound plunged and consumer confidence dropped to a 21-year low in the wake of last month’s decision to quit the EU.
The chancellor, appointed to the role late on Wednesday by new prime minister, Theresa May, will meet Carney on Thursday morning “to make an assessment of where the economy is,” he said in a BBC TV interview.
He added: “I think the governor of the Bank of England is doing an excellent job.”
Hammond, who was previously foreign minister, would not comment on his predecessor George Osborne’s plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent and ruled out delivering an emergency budget.
He said he’d deliver an autumn statement “in the normal way.”
© 2016 Bloomberg
