1. The Chancellor presented the final Budget of the parliament on 18 March. Mr Osborne revisited regular themes, with a further increase in the tax free personal allowance and more help for savers, with these giveaways financed by additional revenues from banks and tax avoiders. The macroeconomic impact of the measures is likely to be negligible. 2. However, the Chancellor did make an important change to the assumptions for departmental spending, with a substantial increase pencilled in for 2019-20, the final year of the forecast. While this means that the level of spending in 2019-20 now looks more feasible, it leaves what the OBR has termed a "rollercoaster", with sharp spending cuts in 2016-17 and 2017-18 followed by a substantial rise.
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