UK sets out biggest tax cuts in 50 years

 Pound slides below $1.11 for first time in 37 years

Britain's new finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng unleashed historic tax cuts and huge increases in borrowing on Friday in an economic agenda that floored financial markets, with sterling and British government bonds in freefall.

Kwarteng scrapped the country's top rate of income tax, cancelled a planned rise in corporate taxes and for the first time put a price tag on the spending plans of Prime Minister Liz Truss, who wants to double Britain's rate of economic growth.

Investors unloaded short-dated British government bonds as fast as they could, with the cost of borrowing over 5 years seeing its biggest oneday rise since 1991, as Britain raised its debt issuance plans for the current financial year by 72.4 billion pounds to 234.1 billion pounds ($259 billion).