Rishi Sunak postpones announcement of plan to uplift UK economy to November 17

Newly elected British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not be announcing his plan to repair the public finances of the country as scheduled on October 31. According to Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, the public will have to wait till November 17 for the much-anticipated official announcement.

"The prime ministerand I have decided that it isprudent to make that statement on the 17th of November," Huntsaid in a televised statement on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

The United Kingdom is currently in the middle of an economic crisis which was made worse by former PM Liz Truss’ unfunded tax cuts. While the measures announced in the mini-budget resulted in both Truss and former finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng losing their jobs, they also propelled thefall of the British pound to its lowest against the United States dollar while drawing criticism from many financial institutions.

According to BBC, the plan will outline the government's plan to counter a budget shortfall that exceeds $45 billion. The measures are expected to include an interception by the Bank of England.

"Our number one priority is economic stability andrestoring confidence that theUKis a country thatpays its way and for that reason, the medium-term fiscal plan isextremely important," Hunt said. "I want to confirm that it will demonstrate debt fallingover the medium term."

While the delay allows the government to make more amendments to the plan, it poses a challenge for the BoE which will be publishing its forecasts without any idea about the government plans.