The Office for Budget Responsibility finalised its forecast of 1% growth in 2027 before stronger economic data came out, the OBR has told Bloomberg, according to Briefs.co.
Briefs.co reports the OBR said it locked its forecast before the Office for National Statistics upgraded second quarter GDP and before robust readings for July and August.
Jim O'Neill, former Goldman Sachs chief economist, told Times Radio he expects growth "not far off 2%". He said:
"It is almost like the OBR hasn't paid any attention to the past three months' worth of data."
The Resolution Foundation said in a note on 30 October that the OBR took economic data up to mid-August into account. It said the resilience the economy showed in July and August was not incorporated.
The OBR's account and the Resolution Foundation's note agree that the forecast predates the July and August figures. That points to a cut-off date rather than the OBR overlooking data it had. O'Neill's own estimate of growth has not been independently checked.
The OBR forecasts growth of 1.2% in 2026, 1.0% in 2027, 1.6% in 2028, 1.8% in 2029, 1.7% in 2030 and 1.6% in 2031.