Good old Alistair Darling is on manouevres again. Normally, Chancellors stay quiet before the Budget but he has admitted to the Sunday Times that there will not (surprise, surprise) be an economic recovery starting in July as he predicted last October. “We must be realistic about this,” he says. “I think it will be the back end, turn of the year time, before we start seeing growth here.” I can’t remember another time that a Chancellor told a newspaper his new forecast weeks before he told Parliament. The Sunday Times confidently states that the Budget will show a 3% fall in GDP
When Darling says “You must not build up any false hope,” I wonder who he has in mind? Certain dour Scotsmen who have been going around saying that the G20 illusion will speed the global recovery? He sees no green shoots – and downplays the Nationwide ‘house price recovery’ as a blip.
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