The Chancellor's Autumn Statement on 29th November was delivered against a grim economic backdrop. The UK's borrowings now stand at around £1000 billion and the borrowings will continue to rise by a further £137 billion in the current year, £127 billion in 2012, £120 billion in 2013, £100 billion in 2014, £79 billion in 2015 and 53 billion in 2016. UK growth for the current year has been revised downwards from 1.7% to 0.9% and for next year from 2.5% down to 0.7%. Inflation stands at 5.2%. We are at least not in recession, although the Chancellor warned that "if the rest of Europe heads into recession, it may be hard to avoid one here".

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