Prospects for the UK Economy Post-COVID

A group of economists will be analysing the economic prospects for the UK in the post-pandemic world as part of a new series hosted by the School of Politics and Economics.

The UK government’s immediate response to the coronavirus pandemic has seen it significantly increase levels of spending and rapidly expand the state’s role in economic affairs.

As a result, policy makers have been presented with numerous difficult, long-term decisions which, for the first installment in the new SPE Practitioners Series, economists Faiza Shaheen (director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies), Daniel Pryor (Head of Programmes, Adam Smith Institute), and Daniel Susskind (visiting professor at King’s College London) will be discussing in detail.

The panellist will look closely at whether the increased levels of spending and sweeping new interventions can be maintained in the face of a prolonged recession, with the deficit, government debt and unemployment all rising.

The panellists will also seek to answer a range of questions facing ministers, including what criteria the government should use to determine when to end fiscal stimulus and reinforce fiscal discipline, whether we might see a return to the kind of austerity we saw in the last decade, whether long-term tax rises and increases in government spending will be the way forward, and whether historically low interest rates offer a way out of the crisis.

Jonathan Portes (professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London) will be acting as chair for the event, entitled Prospects for the UK Economy Post-COVID, which takes place on Thursday, 3 December, from 16.30-18.30.