British finance minister Mr Gordon Brown will map out the economic battleground for a parliamentary election expected in May when he delivers his ninth budget on March 16th.
A Treasury spokesman announced the budget date today at a time when Mr Brown's critics say taxes will have to rise if the Labour Party wins an unprecedented third successive term.
Mr Brown, however, is likely to try to shift the focus to how well the British economy has done under his stewardship since 1997 and future challenges facing the nation.
Prime Minister Tony Blair has yet to call the election, which opinion polls suggest Labour should win easily, but speculation is rife that he will pick May 5 th.
Mr Brown, who is currently touring China where the budget date was named, has been particularly struck by the rising economic clout of many Asian countries and wants to boost science and education to ensure Britain can compete in the modern world.
But financial markets are likely to be more concerned that Labour's longest serving Chancellor of the Exchequer may be in danger of breaking his self-imposed Golden Rule, that the government borrows only to invest over the economic cycle.
"There is clearly a real danger that the Rule will be broken," said Mr Jonathan Loynes, chief UK economist at Capital Economics. "Even if the Rule is met in the current cycle, significant tax hikes are likely to be required to put the public finances on a sustainable footing at the start of the next."
Mr Brown will concede no such thing, especially as much better than expected January borrowing figures published last week have put him back on track to meet his fiscal forecasts. "Today's figures show that Britain, as I promised, is meeting our fiscal rules,"
Mr Brown said last Friday after data showed corporate tax revenues surged more than 30 per cent.
But the Conservative Party has seized on warnings from several thinktanks that Brown is on course to break his rules to argue that the Blair government would raise taxes further if re-elected.