"It is the duty of the Office to examine and report on the sustainability of the public finances"
Since the publication of our November 2017 Economic and fiscal outlook we have received a request for further detail underlying our housing supply forecast. We have published this new supplementary forecast information on the November 2017 EFO page.
We have revised down our productivity and GDP forecasts and, despite lower borrowing this year, revised up our forecast for the budget deficit. The Chancellor has raised the deficit further with higher public spending and a net tax giveaway. Read more in the November 2017 Economic and fiscal outlook.
The UK economy has slowed this year as households’ real incomes and spending have been squeezed by higher inflation. GDP growth has been a little weaker than we expected in March, but once again we have been more surprised by the strength of employment growth and the corresponding weakness of productivity growth. The persistence of…
The ONS has reclassified English housing associations to the private sector with effect from today. Our November 2017 forecast will reflect this reclassification.
Since the publication of our March 2017 Economic and fiscal outlook we have received a request for further detail underlying our business rates forecast. We have published this new supplementary forecast information on the March 2017 EFO page.
Robert Chote distils the key messages from our latest Forecast evaluation report – published today – in his press conference presentation and accompanying speaking note.
The OBR is likely to revise down potential productivity growth in its November forecast, weakening the outlook for the public finances. This would be partially offset by lower equilibrium unemployment, more hours worked and downward revisions to borrowing last year.
We have decided to push back the publication of our 2017 Welfare trends report from 10 October to later in the financial year. The report will focus on the forecasting of Universal credit ahead of next year’s planned surge in the number of UC recipients.
Government borrowing was £0.2 billion lower than last year over the first five months of 2017-18. Our March forecast predicted a rise in borrowing for 2017-18 as a whole, with self-assessment income tax paid in the second half of the year expected to fall relative to 2016-17.
Official figures this week showed a big jump in government debt interest spending. Read our paper on the debt interest outlook and risks. This paper is a slightly modified standalone version of Chapter 8 of our July 2017 Fiscal risks report.