WIREDGOV

It was a plentifully leaked and pretty much as expected ‘steady as she goes’ Autumn Statement yesterday but it was a far more upbeat update on the public finances than any Chancellor has had the pleasure of delivering over the last six years or so. Indeed, as Chancellor George Osborne wasted no time in pointing out, it was the largest upward revision to official economic forecasts in 14 years.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility significantly revised up its projections for growth in 2013 but surprisingly assumes the pace of growth will ease moving into 2014. While the OBR uprated their GDP growth forecast for this year to 1.4% (from 0.6% in March) and increased its 2014 forecast to 2.4% (from 1.8%), in its quarterly profile it assumes the rate of UK growth will decelerate to 0.7% in the final quarter of 2013 and hold steady at 0.5% in 2014.

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