Download or read book Forecast Evaluation Report October 2012 written by Office for Budget Responsibility and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report sets out how the economy and the public finances have evolved since the beginning of 2010 and examines how this evolution compares to the forecasts published by the OBR at the time of the Coalition's first budget in June 2010 and subsequently. In this year's report the key question to address is why the OBR over estimated the pace of economic growth so significantly since the autumn of 2010 whilst public sector borrowing has fallen no more slowly than expected? The underestimation of economic growth reflects several factors: the impact of stubborn inflation on real consumer spending; deteriorating export markets; impaired credit conditions; euro area anxiety and demand uncertainly for business investment. Public sector net borrowing, on the other hand, fell much as expected. The public finances have been buoyed by the resilience of cash spending and the labour market, while local and central government have spent less on public services and administration than budgeted. Individual chapters cover: the economy; the public finances; conclusions and lessons to be learned. Annexes contain the decomposition of fiscal forecast errors and comparison with past official forecasts.

Download or read book The Office for Budget Responsibility and the Politics of Technocratic Economic Governance written by Ben Clift and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Office for Budget Responsibility and the Politics of Technocratic Economic Governance is about the politics of economic ideas and technocratic economic governance. It is also a book about the changing political economy of British capitalism's relationship to the European and wider global economies. It focuses on the creation in 2010 and subsequent operation of the independent body created to oversee fiscal rectitude in Britain, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). More broadly, it analyses the politics of economic management of the UK's uncertain trajectory, and of British capitalism's restructuring in the 2010s and 2020s in the face of the upheavals of the global financial crisis (GFC), Brexit and COVID. A focus on the intersection between expert economic opinion of the OBR as UK's fiscal watchdog, and the political economy of British capitalism's evolution through and after Brexit, animates a framework for analysing the politics of technocratic economic governance. The technocratic vision of independent fiscal councils fails to grasp a core political economy insight: that economic knowledge and narratives are political and social constructs. The book unpacks the competing constructions of economic reason that underpin models of British capitalism, and through that inform expert economic assessment of the UK economy. It also underlines how contestable political economic assumptions undergird visions of Britain's international economic relations. These were all brought to the fore in economic policy debates about Britain's place in the world, which in the 2010s centred on Brexit. This book analyses OBR forecasting and fiscal oversight in that broader political context, rather than as a narrowly technical pursuit.

Download or read book Budget 2013 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-04-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Treasury Committee's report on Budget 2013 focuses on: macroeconomy; the public finances; monetary policy; taxation; departmental spending; housing; energy policy; premature disclosure of budget information; Parliamentary timing. The report contains 46 conclusions and recommendations. Particular attention is paid to the Help to Buy housing policy, which is considered a work in progress which may have unintended consequences and may not help first-time buyers. The Committee poses a number of questions for the Chancellor on the policy. Overall, if the Government's priority was housing supply, its housing measures should have concentrated there. On energy it is unclear which Government Department is in the lead for energy policy and this lack of clarity must be addressed. The changes to the monetary policy remit announced by the Chancellor at the time of Budget 2013 create uncertainty. Tax complexity and instability remain of considerable concern. The Committee will monitor whether the Government anti-avoidance measures succeed in generating the revenue predicted of them. In addition, the Committee invited comments from three accounting bodies on how Budget 2013 meets the Committee's tax policy principles: basic fairness; supporting growth and encouraging competition; certainty, including simplicity; stability; practicality; and coherence.

Download or read book Autumn Statement 2012 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-12-05 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The OBR's forecast for GDP growth in 2012 is -0.1 percent and is projected to pick up in every year of the forecast. Public Sector Net Borrowing is forecast to fall by 1.0 percent of GDP in 2012-13 and in subsequent years of the forecast. Public Sector Net Debt is expected to be 79.9 per cent of GDP in 2015-16 before falling to 77.3 per cent by 2017-18. This Statement sets out a further £6.6 billion package of savings in the spending review period, made up from welfare, Official Development Assistance (ODA) and departmental current spending. A £5.5 billion of additional infrastructure will be funded, including in new roads, science and free schools and academies. There will be a further 1 per cent cut in the main rate of corporation tax from April 2014, to 21 per cent and a significant temporary increase in the Annual Investment Allowance from £25,000 to £250, 000 for two years. A greater proportion of growth-related spending will be devolved to local areas and a Business Bank will be created to deploy £1 billion of additional capital and enable UK Export Finance to provide up to £1.5 billion in loans with a package of reforms to promote export. The Government will: increase the basic State Pension by 2.5 percent; create an HM Revenue & Customs unit dedicated to tackling offshore tax evasion; introduce of the UK's first General Anti-abuse Rule; develop significant new information disclosure and penalty powers; and close off tax loopholes. Lifetime allowances for pension contributions will be reduced.

Download or read book Autumn Statement 2012 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-29 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Treasury should re-establish the annual Budget as the main focus of fiscal and economic policy making. The Autumn Statement is not, nor should it be, a second Budget. An additional budget can create uncertainty and carries an economic cost. Treasury and business managers also need to ensure that there is adequate Parliamentary time to allow proper scrutiny of the Finance Bill. About half of general government expenditure is to be protected from the new spending cuts but the complete protection of ring-fenced departmental budgets will be difficult to sustain while other departments are substantially affected. The Committee also intends to question the future Governor of the Bank of England, Dr Mark Carney, on possible alternatives to the inflation targeting that currently underpins the work of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank. The Treasury and to some extent the Bank were at fault for failing to coordinate the announcement of the Asset Purchase Facility transfer with that of the November MPC press release. It is vital that the MPC fulfils its duty to demonstrate its independence. There is concern at reports that the Funding for Lending Scheme may be biased in favouring lending for mortgages rather than lending to SMEs. The sums expected from the sale of the 4G spectrum and Swiss tax repatriation represent the majority of the additional receipts the Treasury intends to offset against the tax reductions and investment but both are uncertain. The Chancellor must also use the 2013 Budget to set out a clearer strategy for fuel duty over at least the medium term

Download or read book Office for Budget Responsibiity Forecast Evaluation Report written by Office for Budget Responsibility and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-09 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The backdrop to this report is: a real economy that, until very recently, has been weaker than expected; a labour market that has been stronger than expected in terms of employment, but weaker in terms of earnings growth; and a fall in public sector borrowing as a share of national income of around a third from its peak in 2009-10, with the deficit falling significantly in 2010-11 and 2011-12 but by much less in 2012-13. The report explains the OBR's June 2010 and March 2012 forecast errors, and the weakness of the real economy. GDP remains 3.3 per cent below its pre-recession peak, the disappointing performance over the last three years reflecting the weakness of domestic and external demand. Private sector employment growth has far exceeded forecasts. The March 2013 forecast for public sector borrowing predicted a figure of £119.8 billion in 2013-14, a reduction of £1 billion over the previous year; but the new forecast is for an increase of £4.2 billion increase over 2012-13.

Download or read book Budget 2013 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-20 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Budget 2013 announces further detail on the Government's deficit reduction plans, new steps to ensure monetary policy continues to support the economy (including a new remit for the Monetary Policy Committee), and further measures to ease the long-term pressure on the public finances. Central government departmental expenditure limits will be reduced by £1.1 billion in 2013-14 and £1.2 billion in 2014-15, with the funds used to support housing. Schools and health budgets remain unchanged. Public sector pay awards will be limited to an average of 1 per cent. Budget 2013 is fiscally neutral. Action to promote growth includes: a reduction in corporation tax by 1 per cent in April 2015; from April 2014 giving businesses and charities an entitlement to a £2000 employment allowance per year towards their employer National Insurance contributions, designed particularly to help small businesses; capital spending increase by £3 billion a year; providing £1.6 funding to support strategies in 11 key sectors; creation of a Single Local Growth Fund; introduce a new housing scheme, Help to Buy comprising an extension of the First Buy scheme and mortgage guarantee for lenders who offer mortgages to people with a deposit of between 5 and 20 per cent on homes with a value up to £600,000; reducing the qualifying period for Right to Buy; doubling the existing affordable homes guarantee programme, to support a further 15,000 affordable homes in England by 2015. Other measures include: first £10,000 of income to be tax free in 2014-15; cancellation of planned fuel duty increases; a new tax-free Childcare Scheme and increased child support in Universal Credit; implement the £72,000 cap on reasonable social care costs; reduce beer duty by 2 per cent; crackdown on tax avoidance, with the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey entering into tax information exchange agreements.

Download or read book The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What We Can Do About It written by P. Taylor-Gooby and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the immediate challenges from headlong cuts, root-and-branch restructuring and the longer-term pressures from population ageing. It demonstrates that a more humane and generous welfare state that will build social inclusiveness is possible and shows how it can be achieved.

Download or read book House of Commons Treasury Committee Autumn Statement 2013 HC 826 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-03-08 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Around 43% of departmental expenditure limits are ring-fenced. As a consequence, public expenditure control - on the scale required to address the deficit - will be increasingly difficult. While ring-fencing reflects public priorities, those preferences are not equally strongly held for all ring-fenced areas. Support for the 33.5% cumulative real increase in aid over the course of this Parliament, for example, appears to be lower than for health and schools. The Committee also remains concerned about the impact of the Government's Help to Buy: Mortgage guarantee scheme. An abrupt end to the scheme could distort the market, as could announcements which radically alter people's expectations. Forecasts of additional revenue from many anti-avoidance measures are inherently extremely uncertain. The Committee warned in its report on the Autumn Statement 2012 that the forecast revenues from the UK-Swiss agreement - at £5.3 billion - were subject to uncertainty and that the proceeds may not meet expectations. These concerns appear to have been justified. Even after the event it is often very difficult to establish how much a particular measure has raised. The OBR should look again at how the Government accounts for projected revenues, based on previous experience. Even after the event it is often very difficult to establish how much a particular measure has raised. The more transparency about the yield, and therefore each proposal's effectiveness, the better

Download or read book School Teachers Review Body twenty second report 2013 written by School Teachers' Review Body and published by Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-06-27 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this 22nd report the Review Body was asked to consider how to apply teachers' pay the Government's "average 1 percent" pay uplift policy which applies across the public sector. This remit follows a two year pay freeze and the Government has made clear there will be two further years of pay restraint for the public sector as a whole.In light of the Review Body's 21st report the Education Department published advice to schools on revising their approach to pay. September 2013 will be the last time annual pay increments will be awarded to teachers based on length of service. Thereafter schools will be free to make individual progression decisions based on appraisal with points retained for reference only on the main pay scale. The Department has said there was no additional funding for schools to cover the 2013 pay award. In the area of recruitment and retention the Body suggested there were some emerging areas of concern, including competitive pressures, especially in urban areas. The Review Body has given particular weight to the need for simplicity so schools can concentrate on preparing for implementation of proposals in the last report, and also the need to provide some underpinning support for the teacher labour market as a whole. They recommend an increase of 1 percent from September 2013

Download or read book Budget 2014 written by Great Britain: H.M. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-03-19 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Budget 2013 (HC 1033) announces further detail on the Government's deficit reduction plans, new steps to ensure monetary policy continues to support the economy with a new remit for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), and further measures to ease the long-term pressure on the public finances. Central Government departmental expenditure limits will be reduced by 1.1 billion in 2013-14 and by 1.2 billion in 2014-15, with the funds used to support housing. Schools and health budgets will remain unchanged; and public sector pay awards will be limited to an average of 1%. Budget 2013 is fiscally neutral - action to promote growth includes: (i) a reduction in corporation tax by 1% in April 2015; (ii) a 2000 employment allowance per year from April 2014 designed particularly to help charities and small businesses with employer's National Insurance contributions, (iii) a capital spending increase of 3 bi

Download or read book Economic and Fiscal Outlook March 2013 written by Office for Budget Responsibility and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-03-20 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report sets out forecasts for the period to 2017-18 and assesses whether the Government is on course to meet its medium-term fiscal objectives. The economy grew slightly more strongly in 2012 than expected but also shrank more than expected in the final quarter, and entered 2013 with reduced momentum. This leads the OBR to revise growth forecasts to 0.6 per cent in 2013 and 1.8 per cent in 2014. Thereafter the forecasts are unchanged rising to 2.8 percent by 2017. The pace of recovery is constrained by slow growth in productivity and real incomes, continued problems in the financial system, the fiscal consolidation and the outlook for the global economy. Public sector net borrowing (PSNB) is expected to be broadly flat this and next, then will resume its fall in 2014-15. Underlying deficits in PSNB are forecast to be very close to £120 billion in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. Tax receipts are £5.1 billion lower but central government departments are expected to underspend by almost £11 billion this year. The Government has a more than 50 per cent chance of meetings its fiscal mandate. Other forecasts by the OBR include: the ILO unemployment rate to peak at 8.0 per cent in 2014 before falling back to 6.9 per cent in 2017. Real wage growth is expected to be negative in 2013, only marginally positive in 2014 before picking up to 2 per cent in 2016. The publication contains: Chapter 1: Executive summary; Chapter 2: Developments since the December 2012 forecast; Chapter 3: Economic outlook; Chapter 4: Fiscal outlook; Chapter 5: Performance against the Government's fiscal targets; Annex A - Budget 2013 policy measures.

Download or read book What Is the Truth About the Great Recession and Increasing Inequality written by Mario Morroni and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever puzzled over the causes of the 2007–8 financial crisis and wondered how it will affect all our futures? If so, this book is for you. Using imagined dialogue between three economists with contrasting theoretical perspectives and a student who knows little about economics, different interpretations are compared in straightforward, jargon-free language. The book explores both the consequences of neoliberal economic policies based on the belief in efficient, self-regulating markets and the implications of alternative economic visions formulated in response to the Great Recession. In all, nine dialogues are presented, each of which focuses on a key theme: increasing inequality, the failure of economists to predict the crash, the reasons for fiscal austerity, the rolling back of the welfare state, the roles of the state and the market, the repercussions of the German trade surplus and the Eurozone crisis, policies to confront the crisis, environmental degradation, and the need for an industrial policy appropriate to the present day. The book will be ideal for both general readers and those embarking on the study of economics.

Download or read book The Bank Culture Debate written by Huw Macartney and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period since the Global Financial Crisis and numerous scandals have exposed some areas of serious illegal and unethical conduct within western banking systems. Despite extensive reforms it is increasingly apparent however that there is a persistent problem with the 'culture' of banking in Anglo-America. US and UK state managers made substantial efforts to reform the culture of their banking sectors. However, this book argues that they focused on an extremely narrow definition of bank culture. They did so for two reasons: firstly, because the structural pressures of financialization - which are a far more important driver of the problematic features of bank culture in Anglo-America - are harder to remedy; but secondly, state managers also used their bank culture response to tackle a legitimacy crisis facing their institutions of government. In so doing they abdicated responsibility for the real problems - of inequality and instability - associated with their respective financial systems Drawing on interviews with more than 150 individuals working in financial services as well as regulators, politicians, and lawyers, The Bank Culture Debate explains the strategies employed by state managers before then examining what has and has not changed in the culture of banking in the US and UK.

Download or read book OECD Economic Surveys United Kingdom 2015 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This OECD Economic Survey of the United Kingdom examines recent economic developments, policies and prospects. Special chapters cover improving infrastructure and ensuring sustainable bank lending.

Download or read book Money and Government written by Robert Skidelsky and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical examination of economics' past and future, and how it needs to change, by one of the most eminent political economists of our time The dominant view in economics is that money and government should play only minor roles in economic life. Economic outcomes, it is claimed, are best left to the "invisible hand" of the market. Yet these claims remain staunchly unsettled. The view taken in this important new book is that the omnipresence of uncertainty makes money and government essential features of any market economy. Since Adam Smith, classical economics has espoused non-intervention in markets. The Great Depression brought Keynesian economics to the fore; but stagflation in the 1970s brought a return to small-state orthodoxy. The 2008 global financial crash should have brought a reevaluation of that stance; instead the response has been punishing austerity and anemic recovery. This book aims to reintroduce Keynes’s central insights to a new generation of economists, and embolden them to return money and government to the starring roles in the economic drama that they deserve.

Download or read book Economic and Fiscal Outlook December 2012 written by Office for Budget Responsibility and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-12-05 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report sets out forecasts for the period to 2017-18 and also assesses whether the Government is on course to meet its medium-term fiscal objectives. The economy has performed less strongly than forecast in March 2012 (Cm. 8303, ISBN 9780101830324) and GDP is forecast to fall by 0.1% in 2012 and then to grow by 1.2% in 2013, 2.0% in 2014, 2.7% in 2016 and 2.8% in 2017. Public sector net borrowing (PSNB) is forecast at £108 billion or 6.9% of GDP this year (excluding the transfer of the Royal Mail's historic pension deficit into the public sector). PSNB is then forecast to decline to £31 billion or 1.6% of GDP by 20017-18. Public sector net debt (PSND) is now expected to peak at 79.9% of GDP in 2015-16 meaning the Government will miss its supplementary target of PSND falling as a share of GDP between 2014-15 and 2015-16. Other developments since the March 2012 forecasts include: the unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8%, and the overall level of employment rose to 29.6 million in the three months to September. Around half the increase since 2011 has been driven by a rise in self-employment and part-time employees, though total hours worked per week have also risen. The situation in the euro area continues to weigh on confidence and trade. Inflation is also likely to be higher in the short term, reducing the growth of real household disposable income and consumption. The Government has a greater than 50% chance of hitting its fiscal mandate.