Speaking to the , Reeves said the current levels of growth were “not good enough” and that boosting the figures was the “number one mission of the Labour government”.
As part of that mission, Reeves said she would be meeting regulators to encourage them to “do what is needed” to boost growth.
“We are not going to be able to grow the economy if the regulators keep doing what they’re doing.”
She added that there was not “a room big enough” to meet all the UK’s regulators.
Since coming to power in July, Reeves has faced criticism for several of her decisions including removing the winter fuel payment from all but the poorest pensioners, changing inheritance tax rules for farmers and opting not to compensate women affected by changes to the state pension age.
She defended those moves as “difficult decisions” that were “the right decisions in the national interest”.
She added that she wished she had arrived in the job and been told “‘the money’s coming in’… then I could have made different decisions”.
“But in the circumstances that I inherited, I judged that I had to make sure the sums added up.”
Asked if her decisions had damaged business confidence, Reeves asked: “What was the alternative?
“All decisions have consequences but imagine the alternative.
“Imagine that I hadn’t addressed that problem and now when financial markets look at the UK, they would be saying ‘this is a government that is not real about the situation that it faces, it is spending more money than it is bringing in. It’s having to borrow more and more’.”
