А leading think-tank said on Wednesday, british finance minister Philip Hammond will probably say next month that he will miss a key budget target because he will not be able to squeeze spending as much as he planned.

Hammond says he wants to hold the underlying budget deficit below 2 percent of the country's economic output in the 2020/21 financial year. But he is also under pressure to ease the strain on hospitals and other public services, while some welfare reforms are on hold due to their impact on poorer households.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said Hammond would probably have to relax his target or drop it when he makes a half-yearly budget statement on March 13. But even that gentler squeeze on spending would probably be too hard to achieve, NIESR said.

NIESR cut its forecast for British economic growth in 2019 to 1.5 percent from a previous estimate of 1.9 percent, citing a slowdown in the economy at home and globally.