0.1%

[Mich the Tester]

Andrew Neil made a good point on Daily (have a go at) Politics today - if May 6th is the election, the Q1 figures will have just come out. If we slip back again, GB is ****ed.

But we won’t. Forecast economic growth figures for q1; 0.5%. That way Flash Gordon can claim that Britain is experiencing ‘an exponential growth in output’.

[Doggy Styles]

I thought the Labour chap had let slip the 6th May...

He only did that because nobody noticed the first minister who 'let slip' the 6th of May. I've forgotten who it was.

A lot of people think it's a clumsy attempt to wrong-foot the opposition. Which points to March.

[Doggy Styles]

But we won’t. Forecast economic growth figures for q1; 0.5%. That way Flash Gordon can claim that Britain is experiencing ‘an exponential growth in output’.

Is that true? Excellent point then. Got to be March now, hasn't it.

[OwlHoot]

GDP includes Government spending, which is rising all the time. See graphs here.

So yes, it's very easy for the Government to boost GDP with no upturn (and probably the opposite) in business productivity.

[Lockhouse]

We are really still in recession. With all that QE the best we can manage is 0.1%!!!! Bearing in mind that most economists were predicting between 0.2% and 0.9%....We are totally flipped.

[gingerjedi]

Daily Mash gets it on the nose!

"The Office of National Statistics confirmed the end of the longest downturn in post-war history thanks to a chubby woman in Doncaster buying a Cadbury's Boost from a Shell garage at 11.20pm on New Year's Eve."

Should have gone on to say "With what was left over from her temp xmas job wage packet".

[Julius Caesar]

GDP includes Government spending, which is rising all the time. See graphs here.

So yes, it's very easy for the Government to boost GDP with no upturn (and probably the opposite) in business productivity.

GDP is not really a measurement of prosperity or growth. For example, 9/11 greatly boosted the US GDP. Or as one French economist put it, burn Paris and GDP will soar; marry your cleaner and it will drop.