Budget & the Stock Market: Look for this number – it’s the number that the market tracks more closely than you think

The Tax Revenue number often matters more than the headline fiscal deficit figure on Budget Day. The deficit tells you the gap. Tax revenue tells you whether the gap can shrink without sacrificing growth. And whether the government’s fiscal maths can hold under real-world conditions. And for the markets, the numbers provide a clue of which parts of the economy are doing well and can be banked upon.