The ‘gangbusters’ economy

Tomorrow’s GDP figures are expected to show that the economy is no longer bouncing along the bottom but is now in steady recovery with a second successive quarter of robust growth. It is all very different from the start of the year when the country appeared to be on the verge of a triple dip recession.

As I say in this week’s magazine, when in early February the Chancellor’s chief economic adviser Rupert Harrison told a crunch Downing Street meeting that the economy would be going ‘gangbusters’ by late summer, early autumn, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Ed Llewellyn was so taken aback by the confidence of the prediction that he insisted on taking a note of it.

Growth, though, is necessary but not sufficient for the Tories. They have to show that ‘we’re all in together’ applies to the recovery as much as it did to austerity. Labour will claim that this is a recovery for the few because the Tories are the party of the rich and that growth means little when prices are going up faster than wages for most people.