In macro terms this was one of the least significant budgets in living memory.
The net giveaway in the coming year was a mere £400 million, counterbalanced by a £400 million claw back the following year. We now know why there were no pre-budget leaks. For even the most imaginative of Treasury officials it would have been nigh on impossible to find anything worth leaking.
The reason for the lack of major measures is that, having taken the pain of accepting downward revisions to the growth forecasts and upward revisions to the borrowing forecasts last December, and with the economy now having stabilised, there was no immediate pressure to do anything.
In fact, this was a political budget and a piece of parliamentary theatre, rather than an exercise in economic management.
