The chancellor Phillip Hammond made his spring statement and tried to put an optimistic spin on the state of the economy, but it only lasted until the OBR's latest forecasts came out when professional commentators began to see the reality. You can see the full March 2018 economic and fiscal outlook HERE.
In the House of Commons Conservative MPs cheered and waved their order papers but outside some of the comments on twitter were not so supportive:
Ed Conway at Sky: It isn't so much that the UK is slumping. It's that every other major economy is accelerating, leaving the UK behind. Striking chart from the latest OBR report
This chart (HERE) shows what he means.
Paul Johnson IFS: Not that much to be Tiggerish about here. Growth forecasts dreadful compared with what we thought in March 2016, dreadful by historical standards and dreadful compared with most of the rest of the world.
Aberdeen Standard Investments chief economist Lucy O’Carroll said Britain faces ‘a decade of austerity’ at least. She went on:
“The Chancellor was always clear that today’s event was to be a modest one, and he kept that promise. But there is little to cheer by way of economic progress. A woeful growth outlook by past standards. Potentially massive dislocation for the economy just around the corner. And all subject to huge, Brexit-related uncertainties.
“Mr Hammond was keen to push a message about there being light at the end of the tunnel. It’s true that the country’s debt burden is about to fall. It’s also true that for the first time since the financial crisis the UK is borrowing only to invest, rather than to fund day-to-day spending.
“But the Chancellor has made it clear that we’ll remain in the tunnel for a while yet: there will be no fundamental reassessment of the UK’s spending needs until 2020. That will mean, in effect, a decade of austerity – unprecedented in the post-war period.
Faisal Islam: Since the war there’s never been 5 consecutive years of GDP growth of 1.5% or below, as forecast today by OBR
Torsten Bell, The Resolution Foundation: This means that despite almost no-one feeling like Britain's economy is going gangbusters, the @OBR_UK thinks we are actually outperforming what we can sustainably produce - that's the real pessimism underlying today's grim forecasts
Ian Jones, Press Association: You have to go right back to 1875-1879 for the last time the UK economy grew by 1.5% or below for five years in a row.
This is the reality of Brexit.
