Deficit
Deficit falls by 0.3%… maybe
George Osborne will be breathing a sigh of relief this morning. The boast he made in his Autumn Statement in December — ‘the deficit is coming down this year, and… Continue reading
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Fitch downgrades UK credit rating
Fitch’s announcement that it is downgrading the UK’s credit rating to AA+ isn’t as politically explosive as the downgrade from Moody’s in February, as it was inevitable that once one… Continue reading
37 Comments
Deficit latest: Still £5 billion higher than last year
Today’s borrowing figures show that the government had a surplus of £11.4 billion in January. But before we get too excited, a bit of context is in order. There’s (almost)… Continue reading
47 Comments
David Cameron rebuked for telling porkies about the national debt
Where was Andrew Dilnot in the Gordon Brown era? The head of the UK Statistics Authority has just rebuked the Prime Minister for telling porkies about debt on his ITV… Continue reading
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Austerity latest: spending up, deficit up.
We can all overdo it a little at Christmas, but the government’s monthly overdraft statement — which came in this morning — is of a different order. In December, HM… Continue reading
62 Comments
The Autumn Statement in 7 graphs
1. Growth evaporating. The Office for Budget Responsibility once again downgraded its growth forecasts for 2012-13 and, for the first time, also did so for 2014-16. Despite that, the OBR… Continue reading
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Lies, damn lies, Nick Clegg and debt
Is Nick Clegg lying about what he’s doing to our national debt? The L-word is seldom used in politics, and in spite of their reputation most politicians try to get… Continue reading
66 Comments Autumn Statement: Downgrades R Us
How much trouble is George Osborne in? We don’t need to wait until his mini-Budget tomorrow, we already know most of it. And we’ll enter that peculiar Budget game, where… Continue reading
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IFS warns Osborne: don’t cook the books, like Brown
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has today published its attempt to predict what the OBR forecasts will show when they’re released as George Osborne sits down after delivering his Autumn… Continue reading
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George Osborne might meet his debt target after all
When George Osborne gives his Autumn Statement on 5 December, the OBR will publish its new forecasts for growth, deficit and debt. For the last few weeks, the consensus has… Continue reading
26 Comments Labour underestimated Osborne’s deficit
As Fraser reported at the time, Labour put up a deficit clock on its website last month, claiming that the government was borrowing £277 million more during Tory conference than… Continue reading
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Danny Alexander: We’d do it all over again
Danny Alexander told Andrew Neil on The Sunday Politics that even if he had known the economy would only grow by 0.6% rather than the five and a half percent… Continue reading
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Can Ed Balls leave his past behind?
A large part of the Tory message at the next election will be ‘don’t let Labour ruin the economy again’. One of the things that will help the Tories make… Continue reading
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Ed Balls tells porkies about the deficit
Ed Balls has just been given a thorough grilling by Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics — particularly on his past assertions that Labour were not running a structural deficit… Continue reading
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IMF: Anatomy of a downgrade
Growth forecast downgrades should come as no surprise these days, but when they come from the IMF they naturally command a fair bit of attention. In fact, the IMF’s downgrades… Continue reading
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Labour to launch a deficit clock for Tory conference
Things have come to a pretty pass when the Labour Party is launching a campaign with a deficit clock to expose George Osborne’s shortcomings. But they are about to do… Continue reading
108 Comments
Why George Osborne will miss his debt target
Much is being made today of reports that George Osborne will drop his fiscal target in his autumn statement on 5 December. Isabel reported earlier that, faced with breaking his… Continue reading
32 Comments
Cameron and the truth about debt
In Tampa, the Republican conference has heard a line of powerful speakers talk about government debt in compelling and urgent way. There’s a contingent of eight Tories out there, led… Continue reading
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Darling: Osborne has given up on growth
‘Unless you do something now it will be years before we recover.’ This morning those words come from former chancellor Alistair Darling in an open letter to George Osborne, but… Continue reading
40 Comments
Obama vs Balls
What do Ed Balls and Mitt Romney have in common? They both want you to think that Barack Obama is spending government money like never before. For Mitt Romney, it’s… Continue reading
32 Comments