It's too close to call

Published on 10 December 2004

This article was published in Public Finance Magazine on 10th December 2004.

The Pre-Budget Report claimed that the chancellor would meet his Golden Rule with billions of pounds to spare. But with the traditional margin of forecasting error itself stretching into the billions, only time can tell.

Last week's Pre-Budget Report was probably the last before the general election, which is likely to occur towards the end of the current economic cycle. This is the first full cycle since Chancellor Gordon Brown introduced his two fiscal rules in 1998: the Sustainable Investment Rule and the Golden Rule.