Alongside the specific roles and duties that I take responsibility for as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, I work alongside the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the rest of our Treasury team to deliver the Government's major fiscal events - that's the Budget, and the Autumn Statement.
These events give us an opportunity to tell Parliament - and the country at large - how our economy is performing, and affords us a chance to set out new policies to help deliver a better, more dynamic economy for people right across the country. On Wednesday, we'll be unveiling the Treasury's 2024 budget, and sharing with the nation our prognosis for the current state of our economy, and our plans to take that economy from strength to strength. We'll be working to deliver on the promises that the Prime Minister set out at the beginning of the 2023 - we've already made amazing progress, and I can't wait to share with you all the policies that we're putting in place to continue that progress in the year ahead.
We've pledged to bring down inflation, the measure of how much consumer prices are rising - when you go to the shops and your groceries cost more, that's inflation. Inflation in October 2022 stood at 10.7%. By the end of 2023, we brought it down to 4.2%, meaning that prices in shops aren't rising nearly as quickly as they were when the Prime Minister set out his ambition to bring down inflation.
But it's not just inflation - we're also working to grow our economy, giving us more money to spend on public services like the NHS and social care, while bringing down the debt, so that we don't saddle future generations with repayment obligations. You can expect to see policies geared towards these key priorities in Wednesday's Budget, alongside measures designed to make the British economy more competitive in our increasingly globalised world.
I can't wait to share this Budget with you all, and to tell you all about our plans for making Britain a better place to live for all of its people. I'll also be working to make sure that those bold ambitions work for the people of Hitchin & Harpenden, making life easier for working families and small businesses as they grow, save, and invest, giving young people the right support to get on in life, and looking after those who have contributed to the economy across their lives.
