The good thing about economic forecasting is that it’s only right when it’s good news for your party. Today the IMF has upgraded its growth forecast for the UK in 2014 from 1.9% to 2.4%, which means that from a Coalition perspective the organisation – having had a rather rocky relationship with the Treasury over the past year or so – is entirely right and filled with jolly good fellows. This is the biggest upgrade for any developed nation. The IMF also said that growth in 2015 will be 2.2%.
George Osborne calculated when he delivered last year’s Budget that he just needed to buy some time until the summer, when the recovery could begin. Now he and David Cameron are making the most of talking about their ‘long-term economic plan’ (Cameron even has a clunky hashtag) to contrast it with the associations that voters still make between Labour and economic chaos.
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