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The Economy

If the right hon. Gentleman looks at the facts so far, he will see that the drop in growth has in fact been steeper in Japan, Germany and Italy than in the UK. Obviously, as we all know, the problems started earlier in the US; it has been experiencing economic difficulties for much longer. London is one of the greatest financial centres in the world, so of course that means that the financial sector will be affected by the global credit crunch. Nevertheless, all countries across the world are being affected, although they are often in very different circumstances and often have very different kinds of economies. The key question is: are we prepared to take the action that is needed to do something about the matter?