Brown pledges steady growth

REACHING out to voters ahead of a British general election expected next year, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown promised steady economic growth and low inflation in 2005.

Presenting his pre-budget report to parliament, Mr Brown pledged extra money to fight terrorism and said tackling climate change and poverty would be priorities for Britain’s presidency of the G8, the group of the world’s eight top industrialised nations, in 2005.

The British economy was expected to grow by 3%-3.5% next year, after a growth of 3.25% in 2004, Brown told lawmakers as he delivered a pre-budget report setting out the Labour government’s economic agenda ahead of national elections widely expected early next year.