A brief guide to the public finances

This guide provides a brief introduction to the UK public finances and to the terms used to describe them in the official statistics. We describe the main sources of government income and spending, and explain how these are used to calculate whether the government is running a surplus or a deficit. We also explain how government debt is defined and calculated.

Read the public finances brief guide

Updated on or soon after every fiscal event


Video explainers

From time to time we produce video explainers to complement our analysis. Our YouTube playlist below showcases our latest explainers.


The direct fiscal consequences of unconventional monetary policies

Since the financial crisis, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has deployed unconventional forms of monetary policy to support the economy. The full consequences of these interventions for the public finances – in the sense of comparing what the public finances look like now with how they would have looked in the absence of such interventions – is impossible to estimate with any confidence. Most of the effects are indirect – including the extent to which gilt purchases reduced gilt yields; the extent to which that induced further changes in asset prices; what effects that had on economic activity and employment; and so on. A second order, but still important, question to ask is how unconventional monetary policy measures have been directly accounted for in the public finances. We address that question in this explainer.

Read the explainer


Forecast revisions database

This database contains a decomposition of revisions to all our fiscal forecasts since 2010 into underlying forecast changes, classification changes and policy changes.

Forecast revisions database

March 14, 2024 – 163.10 KB

Updated at every fiscal event


Want to know more about our forecasts?

Visit the Forecasts in-depth area of our website for more insights into most areas of our forecast.