Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

This is a change from our advice a year ago when we were much more worried about the economic outlook. It was not clear there was going to be a vaccine at that point and we thought that consumers and investment would be pretty depressed by now. As it turns out, things have worked out much better than that. We have seen the economy is more resilient and people are much more willing to spend if they get the opportunity and if there is a vaccine. Our previous advice, that it was possible we would need some sort of big stimulus programme, is not really needed at this point. The fact that investment is ramping up means the Government is already putting a lot of money into the economy. That large-scale, untargeted programme of pumping money into the economy programme does not seem to be required.

There may be some sectors of the economy, firms or activities where the recovery will take longer or balance sheets have taken more of a hit. The Government may need to design some programmes or measures to help those. We are basically saying the money is there should the Government feel those measures are necessary, but we should not expect to pump lots of money into the economy just to get spending going because the economy will be doing okay by that point.