London: Britain's Chancellor Philip Hammond said he would not use better news on the country's big budget deficit to spend heavily because he needs to keep "reserves in the tank" for the impending divorce from the European Union.
"If your bank increases your credit card limit, I don't think you feel obliged to go out and spend every last penny of it immediately," Mr Hammond told BBC television on Sunday ahead of an annual budget statement he is due to deliver on Wednesday.
"I regard my job as Chancellor as making sure that our economy is resilient, that we have got reserves in the tank," he said. "So as we embark on the journey that we will be taking over the next couple of years, we are confident we have got enough gas in the tank to see us through that journey."
Britain's economy withstood the initial shock Brexit vote in surprisingly good shape last year, meaning official growth forecasts for this year are likely to be revised up sharply in the budget.
It also means Mr Hammond will probably announce a modest fall in the amount of money that Britain is likely to borrow over the next five years.
But he said on Sunday that he will not be relaxing his strategy of fixing the public finances.
In a separate interview with ITV television, he said an improvement in the short-term outlook for borrowing did not mean that things would be better over the longer-term.
The outlook for Britain's economy remains clouded by uncertainty over Brexit, which will separate the country from the bloc that buys about half of its exports.
Prime Minister Theresa May is due to trigger the country's divorce from the EU later this month.
Mr Hammond said on Sunday that the tone of private discussions between Britain and other members of the EU had improved since earlier this year, when May said no deal would be better than a bad deal for Britain.
"Whatever is being said publicly ahead of the negotiation, the private messaging is that people are now engaging with this more as a shared problem, something that we have to solve together," Mr Hammond told ITV television in an interview.
"There is an increasingly pragmatic approach," he said.
Reuters