Good, bad and ugly: Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement in nine graphs

Philip Hammond declared himself to be an optimist in his Spring Statement today – and he had a few boasts to prove it: manufacturing enjoying the continued longest growth in 50 years, three million more jobs, borrowing down. He was laying into Labour, in a way he wishes he’d been allowed to during the general election campaign. But the news was in the accompanying financial forecasts: here’s what jumped out at me.

1. The Tories have given up trying to balance the books. Hammond didn’t make an announcement to this effect, but he laid out plans for deficits for years to come. George Osborne at least pretended to be, say, five years away from eliminating the deficit. Hammond has abandoned the pretence. In his Budget he said that if he has extra leeway then he’d spend more, rather than actually balance the books. The below chart shows the deficit forecasts (compared to Osborne’s last Budget).

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