Despite the usual post budget hullabaloo, the only thing remarkable about Wednesday’s announcements was just how little the overall picture has changed. As Gemma Tetlow of the IFS commented, when it comes to tax and spending the giveaways are mostly matched by the takeaways.
It’s a similar story for the wider economy. Here’s the OBR’s opening statement:
In the relatively short period since our last forecast in December, there have been a number of developments affecting prospects for the UK economy and public finances both positively and negatively. These include a further big fall in oil prices, an unexpectedly large increase in net inward migration, further falls in market interest rates, another disappointing quarter for productivity growth, downward revisions to estimates of economic growth in 2014 and downward revisions to the outlook for the world economy. These have had a relatively modest net effect on our forecasts for real GDP growth and the…
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Tory Britain! 