International fiscal experts have warned against overinterpreting narrow fiscal “headroom” measures at the expense of longer-term sustainability risks.
Lower borrowing but higher unemployment projections were part of the varied news the Office for Budget Responsibility delivered to Rachel Reeves before her Spring Forecast speech.
The scale of the OBR’s Budget day information breach was vastly underestimated, according to a report by the National Cyber Security Centre, which has issued recommendations hoping to prevent a...
Protections to prevent premature publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic and fiscal outlook were not applied properly allowing pre-existing weakness to be exploited, a report...
The Office of Budget Responsibility has responded to the latest IMF assessment of the UK’s public finances which included a cautious endorsement of the government’s economic strategy, describing...
The Office for Budget Responsibility should continue to produce two forecasts a year in order to safeguard fiscal transparency, a leading think-tank has said.
Government spending plans remain within a fiscal rule to show debt falling as a share of the economy in a few years’ time, but this largely relies on fuel duty rising – a prospect described by a...
The government has only met its target to show debt will fall by “pretending” certain measures, including the fuel duty freeze, will end this year, economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies have...
Liz Truss has criticised the role of institutions and blamed the “anti-growth coalition” for failing to implement her tax-cutting agenda during her short stint as prime minister last year.
The government will need to adopt permanent tax hikes or spending cuts to avoid debt soaring to more than 300% of GDP by the 2070s, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned.
Despite higher tax income and lower spending on energy support, the government has less fiscal headroom than any in recent years, the Office for Budget Responsibility has said.
Economic volatility from shocks such as wars and Covid-19 have been the “most difficult thing” for Office for Budget Responsibility forecasters to contend with when trying to help the government plan...
Higher borrowing costs and spiralling inflation amid weaker economic growth mean public finances have “materially worsened” since March, the Office for Budget Responsibility has said.
The Treasury has said the forecast it will receive from the Office for Budget Responsibility in October will not be published until late November, resisting calls to release it earlier in an attempt...
A group of MPs has sought assurance that the Office for Budget Responsibility is preparing for a potential emergency Budget or “significant fiscal event” in September should the incoming prime...
Government debt could peak at more than three times GDP over the long-term without tax rises or spending reductions, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned.
The government has failed to budget for £30bn of additional costs resulting from Covid-19 over the next three years, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The government’s 2021 Budget spending plans are at risk because they assume no Covid-19-related support after next year, according to the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Budget measures imply the government will have borrowed an ‘unprecedented’ £570bn over this financial year and next, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The government is set to borrow a peacetime record £394bn this year, as it funds Covid-19 support measures, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The coronavirus outbreak, and the policy response to mitigate its consequences, will have ramifications for public finances that will far outlast the immediate public health crisis. Although the full...
Revised Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts show that Britain’s deficit is likely to be £20bn higher in each year to 2023-24 than was projected in March 2019.
