Chancellor Gordon Brown would have narrowly missed his own golden rule on fiscal policy, had he not changed the economic cycle, according to the Treasury Select Committee.
Its report on this year’s Budget, published yesterday, claims had the Chancellor not revised the economic cycle from 1999 to 2006 to 1997 to 2009 he would have missed his golden rule incurring a cumulative deficit of £1.9bn. The report cites the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), which says minor revisions to the historical and projected budget surpluses over the cycle shown in the 2006 Budget compared with the 2005 Pre-Budget Report do not change this conclusion. The report also cites evidence to the Committee on the 2005 Pre-Budget Report, in which Robert Chote, director of the IFS caut...
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