UK PM Cameron committed to tough austerity plan

The British Prime Minister David Cameron said he is committed to maintaining his program of deep spending cuts in order to eventually free Britain from the strain of high budget deficit, despite the short-term negative impact on economic growth and employment.

Speaking at an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Cameron admitted that his austerity budget is “tough” but the British economy will bounce back as long as the nation continued cut back significantly on spending.

Given the traumas of recent years, the recovery was always going to be choppy,” he said. It is going to be tough but we must see it through, he said. The scale of the task is immense so we need to be bold in order to build this economy of the future. The British people know these things. They understand there are no short cuts to a better future.

Concerns about the magnitude of the government spending cuts were raised when the government released data showing the UK economy actually shrank by 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

Labour politicians, led by Ed Miliband, has criticized the scale of the cuts and said they are hurting but not working.

However, Cameron stuck to his guns, insisting Britain is making progress.

Not long ago we were heading towards the danger zone where markets start to question your credibility,” he said at Davos.

Yet in the past eight months we've seen our credit rating - which was on the brink of being downgraded - affirmed at the triple-A level. We've seen market interest rates - which were in danger of spiraling upwards - actually fall. All this has happened not in spite of our plan to cut the deficit, but because of it. That's why we must stick to the course we have set out.