International fiscal experts have warned against overinterpreting narrow fiscal “headroom” measures at the expense of longer-term sustainability risks.
UK public sector borrowing fell sharply in the last financial year and came in marginally under the official forecast, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
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.
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.
The UK economy is to grow slightly faster than expected this year, but the government has been urged to consider a shake-up of the fiscal framework that would see its performance against its own...
The latest borrowing figures show the “clear risk” run by the government in adhering to its fiscal rules despite the uncertainty of official forecasts, analysts have warned.
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's fiscal credibility is at risk amid the possibility it announces pre-election tax cuts or spending later this year – on top of an upcoming Budget already based on ‘fiscal fiction’ – a...
Lower-than-expected output at the end of 2023 meant the UK economy experienced a technical recession in the second half of last year, the Office for National Statistics has said.
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...
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...
