Osborne to miss deficit reduction target by at least two years, new figures suggest

Green Politics

Government borrowing will overshoot the chancellor's target by £8bn this financial year, according to predictions published today by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Government borrowing will overshoot the chancellor’s target by £8bn this financial year, according to predictions published today by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

On this forecast, the deficit will not be eliminated until 2018.

The deficit will come in at £117bn for this year – or 7.4 per cent of GDP – above the £109bn and 6.9 per cent predicted by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) in December and significantly greater than the 5.8 per cent the OBR forecast in March 2012.

And lest we forget, in his first emergency budget George Osborne said:

“The formal mandate we set is that the structural current deficit should be in balance in the final year of the five-year forecast period, which is 2015-16 in this budget.”

This could ultimately mean that a Labour government is left to clear up the mess left behind by the coalition. The irony.

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15 Responses to “Osborne to miss deficit reduction target by at least two years, new figures suggest”

  1. LB

    The lies.

    Since you left the mess he’s had to try and clear up to claim that you’ve got to do the cleaning up is pure lies.

  2. Sensible Lefty

    Hi LB,

    I’m a man of facts and I’d like to point out that the economy was growing when Labour left office, yes there was a big deficit but there was a plan in to place to cut it in a confidence friendly way.

    On a side not, how would you cut the deficit and boost growth?

  3. LB

    So between 2005 and 2010, the pensions debts grew by 736 billion a year.

    How are you going to pay that?

  4. Sensible Lefty

    I’m working on a way to pay people there pensions but I haven’t quite finished yet.

    How would you make sure people get paid there pensions?

  5. LB

    So what’s your way?

    The government debt is 7,000 bn plus in total. Most of that is linked to inflation?

    Taxes raise 550 bn.

    However spending is 700 bn.

    How would I make sure people get paid? I can’t. Neither can you. Neither can the state.

    There is no way they can pay the pensions as promised or contracted.

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