UK budget watchdog ordered to cancel new fiscal forecasts

Britain's independent budget watchdog said it had cancelled plans to publish an updated assessment of the public finances on Thursday after the cabinet secretary concluded that it would break election rules.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a snap Dec. 12 election in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock.

"We had planned to publish a technical restatement of our March public finance forecast this morning," the Office for Budget Responsibility said. "This will no longer go ahead as the Cabinet Secretary has concluded that this would not be consistent with the Cabinet Office's General Election Guidance."