<p><br /> George Osborne is delivering his first Budget statement to the House of Commons.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Chancellor said his emergency Budget "deals decisively" with the country's record debts, paying for the past and planning for the future.<br /> </p><p><br /> Mr Osborne described his Budget as tough, but also fair, saying the coalition Government had inherited the largest budget deficit of any European economy except Ireland.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Chancellor said: "Unless the Government delivers concrete measures to tackle debt, the consequences would be "higher interest rates, more business failures, sharper rises in unemployment and potentially a catastrophic loss of confidence and the end of the recovery".<br /> </p><p><br /> The Chancellor promised not to hide hard choices from the British people or "bury them in the small print".<br /> </p><p><br /> He also said that Britain was set to miss the Labour government's "golden rule" target by £485 billion.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Government's "formal mandate" is that the structural current deficit should be in balance in the final year of the five-year forecast period, which is 2015/16.<br /> </p><p><br /> A fixed target for debt will also be created, which in this Parliament is to ensure debt falls as a share of GDP by 2015/16.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Office for Budget Responsibility's judgment is that the Government is on track to meet these goals and Mr Osborne said: "We are set to meet them one year early in 2014/15".<br /> </p>
