UK’s Truss meets with fiscal watchdog amid economic crisis

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss and her Treasury chief have met with the independent Office of Budget Responsibility amid efforts to ease concerns about unfunded tax cuts that have unleashed turmoil on financial markets. The meeting Friday was significant because it was the British government’s failure to publish the OBR’s analysis of its tax-cutting plans that spooked investors, sending the pound to a record low against the dollar this week. That failure also forced the Bank of England to intervene in the bond market to protect U.K. pension funds. The chairman of the House of Commons’ Treasury committee said the meeting may be an opportunity for the Conservative government to change course.