Downloads (and caches) the OBR Public Finances Databank and returns all aggregate fiscal series in tidy long format. Covers outturn from 1946-47 and OBR projections through the current forecast horizon.
Value
An obr_tbl (a data.frame with attached provenance) with the
standard v0.4.0 schema (columns: period, period_type, series,
metric_type, value, unit):
- period
Fiscal year (character, e.g.
"2024-25")- period_type
Always
"fiscal_year"for this function- series
Series name (character)
- metric_type
Usually
"level"; ratio or index series get a more specific value derived from the series name- value
Numeric value in units described by
unit- unit
Usually
"gbp_bn"; ratios and indices override
Use obr_provenance() to extract source URL, vintage, and retrieval time.
Details
Series include: Public sector net borrowing, Public sector net debt, Total managed expenditure, Public sector current receipts, Nominal GDP, GDP deflator, and more.
See also
Other public finances:
get_expenditure(),
get_psnb(),
get_psnd(),
get_receipts()
Examples
# \donttest{
op <- options(obr.cache_dir = tempdir())
try({
pf <- get_public_finances()
unique(pf$series)
obr_provenance(pf)
})
#> Waiting 2s for throttling delay ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
#> Waiting 2s for throttling delay ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
#> ℹ Loading from cache. Use `refresh = TRUE` to re-download.
#> $publication
#> [1] "PFD"
#>
#> $vintage
#> [1] NA
#>
#> $source_url
#> [1] "https://obr.uk/download/public-finances-databank/"
#>
#> $retrieved
#> [1] "2026-08-23 18:05:03 UTC"
#>
#> $file_md5
#> [1] "77a07b6641ca8ef85449de08077a9b87"
#>
#> $package_version
#> [1] "0.6.2"
#>
#> $notes
#> NULL
#>
options(op)
# }