British finance minister Rishi Sunak is delivering the budget speech and presenting the spending review.

Key takeaways

"Today’s Budget does not draw a line under Covid; we have challenging months ahead."

"Employment is up, investment is growing, public services are improving, the public finances are stabilising and wages are rising."

"Government can spend up to 3% of GDP for investment."

"Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts 2021/22 underlying public debt to GDP ratio of 85.2% (March forecast 88.8%)."

"OBR forecasts 2023/24 underlying public debt to GDP ratio of 85.7% (March forecast 97.1%)."

"OBR forecasts show 2021/22 budget deficit of 7.9% of GDP (March forecast 10.3% of GDP).

"OBR sees UK GDP returning to pre-crisis level at turn of year (March forecast Q2 2022)."

"OBR forecasts show 2021 GDP growth of 6.5% (March forecast 4.0%)."

"OBR forecasts show 2022 GDP growth of 6% (March forecast 7.3%)."

"OBR forecasts show 2023 GDP growth of 2.1% (March forecast 1.7%)."

"OBR sees CPI of 4% in over next year."

"We will give further support to working families in today's budget."

"I have written to BoE to reaffirm their remit to achieve low and stable inflation."

"BoE has strong track record on inflation."

"OBR sees peak unemployment rate of 5.2% (March forecast: peak of 6.5% at end 2021)."

Market reaction

The GBP/USD pair showed no immediate reaction to these remarks and was last seen losing 0.3% on the day at 1.3726.