Our Fiscal risks and sustainability report examine the likely major pressures on the public finances over the next 50 years. Long-term projections are highly uncertain and sensitive to the underpinning assumptions. But almost all our scenarios show public debt eventually moving onto an unsustainable path. Debt moves onto a steep upward trajectory in the 2040s in our baseline scenario, while in plausible alternative scenarios this happens earlier. It’s almost certain that future governments would have to take action to prevent this from happening. Acting early would reduce risk and would likely require a less costly fiscal adjustment than waiting.
