UK budget office backs state as insurer for coronavirus losses

Britain's independent budget office said there was a "very good argument" for the government to act as insurer against coronavirus losses for businesses, ahead of an expected announcement of more help for companies by finance minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday.

"There is, I think, a very good argument that the state should be the essentially the insurer here," Charlie Bean, a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, told lawmakers.

He also said any attempt to forecast what would happen to the economy in the next year or two was "pie in the sky."