OBR articles

Our article series provides additional insights on economic and fiscal issues related to our forecasts and other work.

Browse our articles

Stacked bar chart decomposing the change in inactivity due to looking after family/home

Trends in labour market inactivity for caring purposes

In this article, we examine the reasons for the consistent downwards trend in inactivity for caring purposes coming to an end and what it might imply for our forecast for overall labour force participation.

Stacked bar chart showing supply-side drivers of annual GDP growth from 1998-2023

Dynamic scoring of policy measures in OBR forecasts

In this article, we set out how the OBR's economic and fiscal forecasts capture the dynamic effects of policies on the economic behaviour of people and businesses.

Black calculator on a yellow background

The OBR ready reckoner

Our new ready reckoner allows users to obtain quick, indicative estimates of how changes in the economy affect public finances.

300 years of UK public finance data

Our new historical public finances database contains 300 years of tax, spending, borrowing and debt data. This article tells the story of government borrowing and debt since 1700 and how the level and composition of tax and spending have evolved over this period.