{"id":455349,"date":"2026-03-03T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/455349\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:08:10","slug":"spring-statement-live-reeves-insists-economic-plan-working-as-uk-growth-forecast-lowered-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/455349\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Statement live: Reeves insists economic plan working as UK growth forecast lowered for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-to2z4d-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Uncertainties in the Gulf cast shadow over Spring Statementpublished at 12:25 GMT<\/p>\n<p>12:25 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-3u1n9h-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/7bbc638d-c11c-479b-90b5-cdbf75037c87.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Faisal Islam<br \/>Economics editor<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Graph showing oil price shooting up in the past few days\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/022668cc-f642-4a24-b67d-e38308e83123.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"1918\" height=\"777\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, 2026 Bloomberg Finance<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The natural gas price for UK delivery in April is absolutely spiralling now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It just hit 170p a therm &#8211; levels not seen since late 2022, during the immediate aftermath of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and a dash for gas across Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It has more than doubled since markets reopened yesterday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For those waiting for the Spring Statement and the new OBR forecasts, gas prices have been assumed by that organisation at 78p a therm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Domestic energy users will be protected for now and will get the already announced cut to bills on 1 April &#8211; but if this is sustained for several weeks, the new energy price cap in July would be very painful and problematic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">These are now about half way to levels that did require, for example, government intervention through the multi-billion pound energy price guarantee in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A possible inflationary spike also puts in doubt the idea of a further series of interest rate cuts from central banks such as the Bank of England.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The markets are responding hard to the uncertainties and the new realities emerging from the Gulf. It obviously casts even more of a shadow over Rachel Reeves\u2019s upcoming statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The chancellor will make the argument that having the room to respond to shocks just like this is exactly why there has been a focus on cutting the cost of government borrowing and inflation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uncertainties in the Gulf cast shadow over Spring Statementpublished at 12:25 GMT 12:25 GMT Faisal IslamEconomics editor Image&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-455349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}