UK Expands Fiscal Buffer, OBR Says in Shock Release

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves expanded her key fiscal buffer to £22 billion ($29 billion) from £9.9 billion in March, the official budget watchdog said, in an analysis released ahead of her speech in error. The headroom figure was the most achieved in a British spending plan since March 2022 and well in excess of the median estimate of £15 billion from the banks surveyed by Bloomberg. The key metric was released as part of an unprecedented early publication of the Office for Budget R