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Brown says UK must steer course for stability

LONDON: Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said on Wednesday that the UK must steer a course of economic stability and avoid the boom/bust economic cycle of previous governments.

While refusing to comment on whether Britain's Monetary Policy (MPC) Committee should raise borrowing costs, as widely expected, when it meets this week, Brown said it was important to achieve stable growth.

"It is the policy of this government to have a stable economy capable of steady growth and I think people know this is what we are achieving," Brown told BBC Television.

The MPC will announce its decision on Thursday with 29 of 34 City economists polled by Reuters last Friday predicting a quarter-point rise to 6.0 percent. A move would be the 16th in 33 meetings since the MPC was set up in 1997.

The move would add to three similar increases in recent months and would follow hot on the heels of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank last week.-Reuters