LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Sunday that he was focused on boosting longer-term growth, not on short-term market moves, when challenged over the sharp fall in sterling and bond prices following his first fiscal statement.
“As chancellor of the exchequer, I don’t comment on market movements. What I am focused on is growing the economy and making sure that Britain is an attractive place to invest,” he told the BBC.
Sterling fell by more than 3% to its lowest since 1985 against the U.S. dollar on Friday, and weakened against the euro and Japanese yen as well, while government bonds recorded their sharpest daily sell-off in decades.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, writing by David Milliken)
