LONDON - Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond said he would keep "reserves in the tank" to see the economy through its looming Brexit challenge, signaling little room for extra spending in this week's budget despite better news on borrowing.
He also said tensions were now easing with other European Union countries after Prime Minister Theresa May shocked her peers by saying no deal was better than a bad deal.
Hammond is due to deliver a budget plan on Wednesday which will be overshadowed by the triggering of the two-year Brexit process which is expected this month.
Britain's economy coped surprisingly well with the initial shock of June's referendum, meaning official growth forecasts for 2017 will probably be raised sharply in the budget.
It also means Hammond will probably announce a modest fall in the amount of money that Britain needs to borrow over the next five years.
But he said on Sunday that he will not be relaxing his strategy of fixing what remains one of the biggest budget deficits among the world's big rich economies. (Reuters)