UK Treasury chief: Tax cuts must wait for inflation to fall

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Treasury chief says taming inflation is more important than cutting taxes. Jeremy Hunt is resisting calls from some in the governing Conservative Party for immediate tax breaks for businesses and voters. At a speech Friday in London, Hunt said “the best tax cut right now is a cut in inflation.” The U.K.’s annual inflation rate hit a four-decade high of 11.1% in October, fueling a cost-of-living crisis and a wave of strikes. It has since eased but still reached a painful 10.5% in December and is the highest since the 1980s. Hunt said he wanted Britain to be a low-tax economy but “with volatile markets and high inflation, sound money must come first.”