Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Mosley Excerpts
Tuesday 10th May 2011

(13 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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I am afraid the hon. Gentleman misses two important facts. First, the most recent figures—within the past week—for personal insolvencies showed a welcome fall. Secondly, household debt reached a record level under the previous Government. As I said in response to the first question today, we are introducing a Financial Policy Committee to assess overall levels of private debt, including business debt, in the economy so that we do not allow dangerous unsustainable levels to grow. That will now be a judgment for the Financial Policy Committee and it will have the tools to do something about it.

Stephen Mosley Portrait Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
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T5. Can my right hon. Friend update the House on what discussions he has had about the likelihood of a further bail-out of the Greek economy and whether he has made any assessment of the UK’s likely contribution?

George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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The answer is that we have not had discussions about a second Greek bail-out and we have not been asked to make a contribution. The question for Greece is whether it lives up to the commitments that it has entered into. There is currently an International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank team in Athens assessing Greece’s progress against the plan that it committed to, and we should await the results of that assessment.