The UK’s finance minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made his 8th budget presentation in parliament on Wednesday. He upset some Eurosceptic members of his own party by repeating a warning from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that the UK would be “safer, stronger and more secure” if it remains in the EU.

The Chancellor trimmed the forecast for economic growth in 2016 from 2.4 to 2% based on OBR projections of weaker productivity. These stem from the fact that economic growth is moderate, but employment and the number of hours that people are working have risen, hence productivity (nationally) is in decline.

The Chancellor still hopes to be able to meet a pledge to eliminate the deficit by the end of the current parliament (2020) and have surplus of £10 billion, but it seems unlikely that the goal of reducing national debt as a proportion of the nation’s GDP will be met this year.

The budget announced that UK corporation tax will be cut from 20 to 17% (which would be fine if all companies actually paid what was due, but tax avoidance remains a thorny issue for some major multinational corporations such as Google (GOOG), Starbucks (SBUX), Amazon (AMZN) and the like), to come into force by 2020. Some smaller businesses will become exempt from business rates and up to 250000 will enjoy a reduction in this charge from April 2017.

A further £3.5 billion will be cut from public expenditure between now and the end of the parliament, but the details are yet to be announced. The personal tax threshold for income tax will rise to £11500 from next year and the band at which people payer the top rate of tax will rise from £42385 to £45000.

The OBR pointed out that, in accordance with parliamentary instructions, that their projections are based on the assumption that the UK decides to remain in the EU in June’s referendum.