(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the United States was monitoring developments in Britain after the government unveiled a fiscal program that pushed the pound to a record low against the dollar, the Financial Times reported.
Yellen told reporters at the conclusion of her visit to North Carolina, that the financial turmoil that occurred in recent days seemed limited to Britain and did not spread to the global economy. The newspaper said it declined to comment on Britain’s new budget.
The US Treasury did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Yellen’s comments came as the International Monetary Fund publicly criticized Britain’s new economic strategy on Tuesday, following the free fall in the sterling and gold market that forced the Bank of England to pledge a “substantial” response to stabilize the economy.
Yellen said financial markets “continue to do well,” adding that they “has not seen the development of liquidity problems in the markets,” the report added.
Yellen said both the US and Britain had “significant inflation problems and that central banks were focused on the desire to bring down inflation”.
