‘You will be worse off than you were last year’ is the message. GDP per capita is forecast to fall 0.8% and GDP 0.2%, Consumer Price Inflation is estimated to be 6.1% this year, and unemployment will rise slightly to 4.1% (3.7%). As has been the case since 2010, the Treasury is forecasting falling debt and deficit in the future that never comes. The OBR reckons we’ll have a short, shallow downturn. Sterling is down and gilts are up – though the markets are more concerned about a potential collapse of Credit Suisse and a banking crisis contagion. Look on the bright side, beer duty on your pub pint is down…

UPDATE:  Emerging from the small print:

• OBR says 2.1 million taxpayers have been dragged into paying the higher rate of income tax and 350,000 dragged into paying the additional-rate because of threshold freezes.
• Sunak and now Hunt’s ongoing stealth tax raid via threshold drag will raise £29.3 billion by 2027/8. Equivalent to raising income tax basic rate by 4p.