Chancellor Says UK Can Weather Bank Crisis

Mon, 05 Nov 2007

UK Chancellor Alistair Darling has appealed for calm in the wake of the American sub-prime market crisis, stating that the British economy is resilient enough to get through the crisis.

"The fundamental point is the British economy is strong - it has been growing now for well over 10 years," he said.

The Chancellor said he had revised British growth figures down at last month’s pre-Budget report because of the global knock-on affect caused by the collapse in the US housing market.

But he said he expected growth to pick up again soon and added that British banks had "very strong balance sheets".

"We will get through this, it's a strong economy and the momentum will carry us through," he added.

The Chancellor’s remarks came as Charles Prince - chairman and chief executive of Citigroup, the world's largest bank – was forced to admit that the lender will have to write off an extra £5.3billion worth of bad loans in relation to the sub-prime collapse.

The write-off is in addition to the £2.4billion of write-offs the bank announced last month, resulting in the largest credit-crunch related losses any bank has reported so far.
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