LONDON - Britain's business minister Jacob Rees-Mogg questioned the track record of the Office for Budget Responsibility in forecasting on Wednesday and said the finance minister should not rely on it when formulating policy.
"Well, let's see what the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has to say rather than guessing what it may say," he told ITV's Peston programme on Wednesday, according to pre-released quotes.
"But its record of forecasting accurately hasn't been enormously good.
"So, the job of Chancellors (finance ministers) is to make decisions in the round rather than to assume that there is any individual forecaster who will hit the nail on the head.
"The OBR is not the only organisation that is able to give forecasts."
British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng on Monday said he would reveal longer-term tax and spending plans and an independent economic forecast by the OBR on Oct. 31, more than three weeks earlier than previously scheduled, to try to rebuild investor confidence.