More than 60 leading economists today backed the British government's plans to delay spending cuts.
In two letters to the Financial Times newspaper, they warned it would be 'reckless' to begin slashing public spending too soon as the country struggles to recover from its worst recession since World War II.
Finance minister Alistair Darling announced in a budget statement in December, a precursor to the main budget next month, that cuts would be put off until after general elections due by June.
The move drew criticism from the press that the government was resorting to populist measures in a bid to win votes, but the economists today rallied behind his strategy.
'History is littered with examples of premature withdrawal of the government stimulus, from the US in 1937 to Japan in 1997,' one of the letters said. 'With people's livelihoods at stake, a responsible government should avoid reckless actions,' the letter added.
Signatories of the letters included two Nobel laureates - Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University; and Robert Solow, an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The appeal came a day after official data showed Britain suffered its first ever January deficit, and after figures last month showed the country crawled out of recession in the final quarter of 2009 with growth of just 0.1%.
Darling is set to announce his latest annual budget in March, just weeks before the election which must be held by early June and is widely expected to take place on May 6.
Other signatories to Friday's letters included five former Bank of England policymakers, responsible for setting the country's interest rates, and Alan Blinder, a former vice-chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
