Brown confident Britain well placed to maintain economic stability in face of stock market jitters

Jan 23 2008 by Aaron Boland, Liverpool Daily Post

GORDON BROWN believes Britain is “well placed” to withstand the financial turbulence which has caused the world’s stock markets to tumble over the past 24 hours, his spokesman said.

As the London Stock Exchange experienced its greatest volatility since 2001, the Prime Minister vowed the Government would do “everything in its power to maintain economic stability”.

Shares across the world fell by 5% or more on Monday amid fears of a recession in the US.

At a regular daily briefing in Westminster, Mr Brown’s spokesman made clear the PM regarded the instability as principally an American problem, rather than a reflection of fundamental difficulties in the UK.

But he said Mr Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling were determined to remain “vigilant” to ensure Britain did not suffer. He said:

“The fundamentals of the British economy have remained sound. Inflation is low, we have had 61 consecutive quarters of economic growth, employment is at record highs.”

He said the Government would strive to maintain economic stability, which was why it had intervened in the Northern Rock crisis and taken tough decisions on public sector pay.

He added: “We have seen events such as this in the past decade – the Asian crisis, the Russian crisis, the bursting of the dotcom bubble – and Britain, unique among all major economies, continued to experience growth through that period.”