ING Group economist Smith said that the incoming UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, will inherit an unenviable legacy in public finances. The country is struggling with a 4.4% deficit and rapidly approaching public debt approaching 100% of GDP. "We suspect that the first task for the Labor Party will be to find a way to end the previous government's plan to cut public spending," he wrote in a report. He said that unless the existing plan is changed, the actual annual expenditure of government departments will be reduced by at least 3%, except for protected medical and defense departments. He said that the Labor Party may make adjustments to fiscal rules, use the flexibility of existing rules, and make several adjustments to small taxes, but further tax increases seem inevitable in order to raise the 20 billion pounds needed to stop the cuts.