Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirms he will hold his first proper Budget on March 15 next year as new figures suggest recession will shrink the economy by 1.3% in 2023
- The Chancellor presented Autumn Statement last month to calm economy
- The UK economy is on track to shrink by 1.3 per cent in 2023 amid a recession
- KPMG economists say UK already in a ‘shallow but protracted’ recession
Jeremy Hunt will set out a Spring Budget on March 15 2023, the Treasury has announced today.
The Chancellor presented an Autumn Statement that was seen as a de facto Budget last month as he tried to steer the UK economy back to calm waters after a turbulent period.
In a written statement he said: ‘Today I can inform the House that I have asked the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare a forecast for March 15, 2023 to accompany a Spring Budget.
‘This forecast, in addition to the forecast that took place in November 2022, will fulfil the obligation for the OBR to produce at least two forecasts in a financial year, as is required by legislation.’
The Chancellor presented an Autumn Statement that was seen as a de facto Budget last month as he tried to steer the UK economy back to calm waters after a turbulent period.
In a written statement he said: ‘Today I can inform the House that I have asked the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare a forecast for March 15, 2023 to accompany a Spring Budget’
The UK economy is on track to shrink by 1.3 per cent in 2023 amid a recession which is set to last until the end of next year, according to a new economic forecast.
Economists at KPMG have predicted that the UK has already entered a ‘shallow but protracted’ recession amid continued inflation and higher interest rates.
Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said increases in food and energy costs this year have dragged back households’ spending power.
KPMG predicted that the country entered recession in the third quarter of 2022.
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter, between July and September.
A technical recession is defined as at least two consecutive quarters of contraction.
It came as new figures revealed how much money his Treasury is raking in from tax rises.
UK tax revenues rose by £85.1 billion over the last financial year, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The global economic body found that total revenue from taxes across the UK rebounded to £775.6 billion over the year to March 2022, from £690.5 billion a year earlier.
The jump was driven by the phased withdrawal of a raft of tax reliefs for households and businesses which had been introduced during the pandemic.
Tax revenues were also £225.2 billion higher than a decade ago, a roughly 41 per cent increase, according to the analysis of annual statistics by the OECD.