UK nominates former BoE rate-setter Haskel to chair fiscal watchdog

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday named former Bank of England rate-setter and academic economist Jonathan Haskel as its preferred choice to be the next chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Haskel, who served on the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee from 2018 to 2024 and is an economics professor at Imperial College London, is expected to take up his post "in good time" ahead of the next annual budget, the finance ministry said.

His appointment is subject to approval from parliament's Treasury Select Committee.

"Jonathan Haskel is an outstanding nominee for Chair. His depth of expertise in economics and his track record of independent, rigorous analysis make him exactly the right person to lead the OBR," finance minister Rachel Reeves said in a statement on Tuesday.

The OBR, an independent body that publishes Britain's economic and fiscal forecasts based on the government's budget, has been without a chair since December following the resignation of Richard Hughes.

Hughes stepped down after the OBR mistakenly published its Economic and Fiscal Outlook - containing all of Reeves' 2025 budget details - on its website early, which Reuters was first to report.

"The OBR plays an indispensable role in maintaining the transparency and integrity of the UK's public finances, and I am committed to upholding that," Haskel said.

Budget Responsibility Committee members Professor David Miles and Tom Josephs will continue to lead the OBR until Haskel's confirmation, the finance ministry said. (Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Andy Bruce; editing by William James and Suban Abdulla)