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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Richard Partington

‘Just hysteria’: UK faces a crisis but the IMF bailout talk is overblown

Close-up of him looking pensive
Denis Healey at the 1981 Labour party conference. In 1976 he approached the IMF for a loan. Photograph: Robert Cooper/Rex

International confidence in the UK government’s economic policies had evaporated. Growth was stalling, inflation was galloping, and Labour – back in power after a reckless Conservative administration had gambled on tax cuts – was in deep trouble.

It was 1976, when James Callaghan’s government was forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan. Fast forward almost half a century and some economists are drawing obvious parallels.

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