LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government spending will increase by almost 70 billion billion pounds ($91 billion) – just over 2% of economic output – over the next five years as a result of policies in its latest budget statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility said.
The OBR said two thirds of the increase would go on day-to-day spending, with one third allocated to capital spending.
“As a result, the size of the state is forecast to settle at 44 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade, almost 5 percentage points higher than before the pandemic,” the OBR said in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which was published alongside the budget.
($1 = 0.7686 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken and William James)
