British finance minister George Osborne will on Monday reinforce his plans for lower spending to allow for the possibility of tax cuts as the Conservative-led government tries to seize the initiative in a pre-election year.
Osborne will stress in a speech on Monday that the job of fixing Britain's still wide budget deficit is far from done, according to extracts given to media by the Treasury.
But he will also highlight how the government has lowered income taxes for many earners and frozen fuel duties as part of his long-term plans for the economy, which staged a surprise recovery in 2013 but remains smaller than before the financial crisis.
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