Chancellor George Osborne told Parliament in his Autumn Statement this afternoon: “Britain is on the right track. Turning back now would be disaster.
“It is a hard road, but we are getting there.”
But he had to again cut his growth forecasts and said weak growth over the past year meant he will now be a year late in meeting his target of cutting debt as a percentage of national output by 2015/16.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility now forecasts that the economy will have shrunk by 0.1% this year, compared to the Chancellor’s prediction of 0.8% growth in his March Budget. It predicts growth of just 1.2% in 2013, well down from the 2% predicted in March, and 2% in 2014, compared to the 2.7% previously forecast.
