"It is the duty of the Office to examine and report on the sustainability of the public finances"
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has nominated Prof. David Miles CBE, Imperial College London professor and former Monetary Policy Committee member at the Bank of England, to join the OBR’s Budget Responsibility Committee. If the nomination is approved by the Treasury Select Committee, he would replace Prof. Sir Charlie Bean who finishes his term at…
Richard Hughes distils the key messages from our latest Economic and fiscal outlook in his press conference presentation and accompanying speaking note.
The successful vaccine rollout has allowed the economy to reopen largely on schedule, despite continuing high numbers of coronavirus cases. The vaccines’ high degree of effectiveness, combined with consumers’ and businesses’ surprising degree of adaptability to public health restrictions, has meant that output this year has recovered faster than we expected in March, boosting tax…
Government borrowing in August 2021 was £20.5 billion, down £5.5 billion from the same month last year. Year to date borrowing of £93.8 billion is now £31.9 billion below our March forecast profile. That reflects both stronger than expected receipts (thanks largely to a faster than expected economic recovery) and lower than expected spending (due…
Government borrowing in July 2021 was £10.4 billion, down £10.1 billion from the same month last year. Year-to-date borrowing of £78.0 billion is now £26.1 billion below our March forecast profile. That reflects both stronger-than-expected receipts (thanks largely to a faster-than-expected economic recovery) and lower-than-expected spending (due to the faster-than-expected unwinding of covid-related government support).
Last week HMT launched the recruitment campaign to find Professor Sir Charlie Bean’s successor as the economic expert on the Budget Responsibility Committee. The Budget Responsibility Committee (BRC) takes collective responsibility for the analysis and judgements that underpin the work of the office and consists of three executive members. Executive members are appointed by the…
Government borrowing in June 2021 was £22.8 billion, down over 19 per cent from last year. Year-to-date borrowing of £69.5 billion is now £19.0 billion below our March forecast profile. That reflects both stronger-than-expected receipts (consistent with the faster economic rebound in recent months) and lower-than-expected spending (perhaps reflecting continued shortfalls in spending on pandemic-related…
Richard Hughes distils the key messages from our third Fiscal risks report in his press conference presentation and accompanying speaking note.
After the second ‘once in a century’ shock in just two decades, our third Fiscal risks report focuses on three large, and potentially catastrophic, sources of fiscal risks. The pandemic could leave £10 billion per year in spending pressures and long-term economic scars. While unmitigated climate change would spell disaster, the net fiscal costs of…
We have just published our Annual report and accounts 2020-21, which outlines our achievements over the past year and contains an assessment of how we have performed our main duties by our non-executive members. It also contains our accounts for the last financial year and information about how we work.