Paul Dales, economist at Capital Economics, said the UK’s effort to bear down on borrowing was a legacy of the market sell-off provoked by former prime minister Liz Truss’s so-called “mini” Budget in 2022. “The UK has had its ‘Liz Truss moment’ and learnt from it, while some other economies, such as France, have not,” he explained. However, he added: “Given that the tax share is on course to reach its highest level since the late 1940s, in the long run a reduction in expenditure might need to help out.”