David Smith

Every recent chancellor has left the system more complicated. As Jeremy Hunt prepares to announce his budget we can only hope he doesn’t make it worse

Government debt has surged to £2.7 trillion, and interest payments with it. Without productivity growth, the drag on the public finances could become unsustainable

Wages are rising too quickly for the Bank of England to contemplate a rate cut, which is adding to pressure on the public finances

The economy needs shoppers, but the cost of living crisis has hit sales. Rising wages will help, though big spending is not guaranteed

The Office for Budget Responsibility was created to stop bias but chancellors have worked out how to game the system

Slightly under the radar, something a little disturbing has been happening in recent weeks. While we have been mainly looking elsewhere, a dose of inflation gloom has taken over.This has been, as you

How come, when net migration is so high, we still have such a tight labour market and so many job vacancies?

This is a big moment for investment and government efforts to boost the amount businesses are spending. Hard on the heels of Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement announcement of permanent “full expensing”

It is no secret that one theme of this week’s autumn statement will be that the chancellor wants to boost business investment. I say “no secret” as anyone sitt

Five-point plans are very much in vogue, right now. Rishi Sunak has one and so does Sir Keir Starmer. Notwithstanding this, and his achievement negotiating chan

Economic forecasts have been in the news. Not since it organised a humiliating bailout of the UK economy in 1976 has the International Monetary Fund (IMF) attra

In the end, it is all about economic growth — it is the way to improve prosperity and living standards. Recently, we saw a cackhanded attempt to boost growth — the excruciating but mercifully brief Liz Truss premiership, and that September 23 mini-budget from which the mortgage market and pension funds are still recovering

Not so long ago, when new technologies such as artificial intelligence were discussed, the debate was about whether they would destroy too many jobs. Some of S

It is never too early in the year, dry January or not, to tackle the big issues, and regular readers will know there are few bigger issues than the UK’s poor pr

One of the big questions for this year is how high interest rates will go. There was plenty of action on this front in 2022, with official rates in the UK risin

We all need cheering up in early January, when the days are short, the weather is iffy and the credit card and tax bills are coming in. So I have been looking

Consensus is rare these days — now that we argue about everything — but it can be useful. Consensus forecasts for the economy enable us to see what the average

When you look back on this year, one thing sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. The return of inflation has been painful and all-encompassing

Strikes are costing us millions but a much bigger enemy of growth is the ill health and apathy that is keeping many would-be employees at home. David Smith reports

I have never seen anything quite like it and, no, I am not talking about the chaos of the thankfully short-lived Liz Truss premiership. I am talking, instead, o