It’s the day after Philip Hammond’s Budget and so far the Chancellor has managed to avoid disaster. Broadly speaking, his Budget has been well-received. The Prime Minister this morning went so far as to say the Chancellor ‘did a very good job’. Meanwhile, another of Hammond’s old foes softened its stance, with the Daily Mail celebrating Hammond’s newfound optimism and the end of the Eeyore chancellor.
However, this afternoon’s Budget briefing from the Institute of Fiscal Studies offered some grim analysis. Paul Johnson and his number-crunching team ran through the figures in the Autumn Budget in detail. Although the Chancellor managed to avoid much criticism (thanks in large to the fact he refrained from putting in many revenue raising measures which could have proved controversial), the downturn in forecasts from the OBR mean there could be difficult decisions ahead. The crucial factor here is that they are just forecasts which means there is still economic uncertainty – with the IFS saying they look about as ‘likely to be too optimistic as to be too pessimistic’.
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