英伦广角 2009-03-22 专家警告英政府大幅增加借贷

Everyone’s got an opinion about how bad the global recession will be and what to do about it. Just as Gordon Brown has been trying to get European leaders to pump more money into their economies, respected forecasters, the Ernst and Young ITEM Club are warning that can’t be done in the UK.
Government borrowing is already on track to hit a record high of 180 billion pounds over the next financial year they say. That’s mainly because the Treasury¹ isn’t being paid so much in tax.

“The real problem is that as a country, we are heavily dependent upon the city for tax revenue. We’ve already seen the Chancellor² lose 6,7 billion pounds with the stamp duty. That’s the tip of an iceberg³. And next year we’ll see some very big hits from corporation tax and income tax too.”

The report says the Chancellor faces a serious dilemma⁴ for the budget next month: put up taxes or cut spending. Some in opposition⁵ agree.

“What we need to do is restrain public spending, get government living within its means and over time deal with this massive massive deficit⁶, because at the moment we are stacking up debts that our children will pay for many decades to come.”

But the government says to cut back on spending now would be a mistake.

This week unemployment hit two million and it’s set to rise even further. That means people have less money to spend. Businesses find their profits are getting weaker and they cut back on their output. And the Treasury gets less money from everyone’s tax bills. So for the moment, the government argues it has to keep public spending up to stop the problem getting worse. But the gap between what’s coming in and what’s going out is getting wider. When the recovery does happen, whoever’s in power will need to take some tough decisions on how to pay back what’s been borrowed.

"We’ve begun to sketch⁷ out some of the very difficult areas that government is gonna have to look at, including things like public sector⁸ pension commitments which are very generous, some of our big long-term defense⁹ commitments, the tax credit scheme. I mean all these things are very generous at the moment, and they are gonna have to be reappraised."

Domestically and globally the picture’s bleak¹⁰. 2009 will be a dangerous year according to the World Bank.

"The IMF came out with a new global forecast recently, close to decline of about 1% of growth. We at the Bank will be coming out with ours soon, you know, probably in the range of 1 to 2 percent, but to put that number in a context, you haven’t seen a figure like that globally since World War II which really means since the Great Depression."

The G-20 Finance Ministers’ meeting last week made it clear that the pressure is growing for the main gathering¹¹ in London to come up with ideas for sustainable rescue.

1 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

2 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

3 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

4 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

7 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

8 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

10 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

11 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。