British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt departs Downing Street with his Autumn Statement for parliament in London on Thursday. TOLGA AKMEN/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCKInvestors hated how former British Prime Minister Liz Truss rushed out a half-baked fiscal-stimulus plan in September, triggering a violent selloff in sovereign bonds. But belt tightening as the economy heads into a recession, based on the premise of dubious debt forecasts, isn’t quite what they ordered either. Financial markets were eagerly awaiting Thursday’s end-of-year update by the U.K.’s new Treasury chief, Jeremy Hunt . Much recent analysis of Britain’s economy has focused on a “black hole” in the government coffers, which Mr. Hunt gauged at around £55 billion ($66 billion).

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