Tim Harvey, senior vice president at ETF Securities, said countries like Russia would not be able to pick up the slack should South Africa supply dwindle near term.

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Temporary spending to pick up economic slack may be useful but the long-term benefits of austerity seem clear.

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Though it didn't explicitly mention deflation, the FOMC says that measures of underlying inflation have trended lower in recent quarters and, with substantial resource slack continuing to restrain cost pressures and longer-term inflation expectations stable, inflation is likely to be subdued for some time.

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But in Labour's second term, the economy grew more slowly and revenues have been slack.

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