UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will deliver an emergency mini-budget a week today to give more details about support to help ease the country's cost-of-living crisis.
The total price tag for supporting businesses and households with soaring energy bills could exceed £150billion and might even run as high as £200billion - almost three times what was spent on the pandemic furlough scheme.
But anyone expecting a full breakdown of Government plans in the so-called "fiscal event" may be disappointed.
The Office for Budget Responsibility will not be publishing detailed forecasts next Friday, one source said yesterday.
Last week Prime Minister Liz Truss said firms would get "equivalent support" to the help announced for households, whose bills would be capped at £2,500 for two years.
But companies up and down the country are still in the dark as to what that actually means for them, including how much support they will get - and exactly when.
It emerged earlier this week that Government support for businesses struggling with energy bills may not arrive until November - raising fears that this may be too late for many enterprises, and their workforces.
Backdated help for firms
A government spokesperson said this week that the help would be backdated, and cover the period from October 1.
They added: "We will confirm further details of the business-support scheme next week. The scheme will support businesses with their October energy bills, including through backdating if necessary."
But a government source also said that the precise mechanism and amount of support may not be finalised till November.
The support for firms is going to be time-limited to six months, with an option to extend support for "vulnerable businesses" - but there has been little indication so far of what that means.
Trade body Scottish Engineering has urged UK ministers to give clarity on the business-support scheme to help stave off closures.
The Chancellor's statement next Friday will come four days after the Queen's funeral and the end of the official national mourning period.
Parliament is suspended during the mourning period, with normal business due to resume on Thursday next week.
PM promise on NI
Ms Truss has promised to use next Friday's fiscal event to undo the rise in National Insurance brought in by her predecessor Boris Johnson.
She has also said she would temporarily scrap green levies on energy bills, in a bid to bring down prices for consumers.
Reuters reports today that Government bond prices have fallen sharply in anticipation of Ms Truss's tax and spending plans, because they imply a sharp increase in government borrowing and with it issuance of gilts.
Help with household energy bills should stop headline inflation surging towards 20% in the coming months - as some economists expected in the absence of a freeze in energy bills.
But the Bank of England may need to keep the interest rate higher for longer, given the improvement to the outlook for households' spending.
Money markets have increased their expectations that the Bank will announce its largest-ever rise in the interest rate after inflation data showed price pressures growing throughout the British economy last month.
Bets have been placed on a 0.75% rise in the Bank rate next week.
Different response
Britain's response to the cost-of-living crisis has differed from its European peers, notably in Ms Truss's rejection of a fresh windfall tax on energy companies' profits.
On Wednesday, the European Union's executive outlined plans to raise more than £120billion from energy firms to help shield households and businesses from spiralling prices.
France will cap power and gas price increases for households at 15% next year, to ease the pain for consumers of Europe's worst energy crisis in decades.