Lord Sikka
Main Page: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Sikka's debates with the HM Treasury
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Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)
I go to the view of Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, and quote her on what she thinks about the UK and its management of its debt:
“The UK is actually one country where action to reduce debt and deficit has been taken decisively and we see the UK in that sense enjoying a bit of a better growth prospect”.
Lord Sikka (Lab)
My Lords, hiking the interest rate is actually a wrong policy. The current level of inflation is caused by profiteering and supply chain constraints, not by excessive cash sloshing around in households. Some 25.3 million people already live below the minimum income standard. The higher interest rate will force households, businesses and government to hand over wealth to banks, boosting their profits without any additional investment. The right policy should be to curb profiteering. Does the Minister agree? If so, what will he do?
Lord Pitt-Watson (Lab)
The decision on interest rates is for the independent Monetary Policy Committee, which is part of the Bank of England. If the noble Lord would like to write to it, or write to it through me, I would be very happy to pass his comments on.