Looking further ahead, if we can get our house in order (and it is an if, given that just to stabilise our debt now requires tighter fiscal policy than we have managed for a quarter-century), there’s a case for a wider rethink. We need forecasts, yes, but we don’t need to pin quite so much on them, or adjust policy one-for-one when they move around. We need some sort of fiscal framework, yes, but we don’t need to obsess about the OBR’s forecast for one particular measure of borrowing or debt to the exclusion of all else.
