<p><p>The newly created independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published its first set of official forecasts for the economy and the public finances. It argues that the economy's growth prospects are weaker than the last government claimed, and that bigger spending cuts and tax increases will be required over the coming years than Labour's final Budget suggested.</p<p>Here are some initial thoughts from Robert Chote, Rowena Crawford, Carl Emmerson and Gemma Tetlow on some of the issues raised by the report.</p> </p><p></p>