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Six Awkward Facts About The UK's Latest GDP Growth Figures

Six Awkward Facts Osborne May Not Want You To Know About His 'Recovery'
Asa Bennett
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Britain's Treasury chief George Osborne listens to a question after his speech during a breakfast meeting held by the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. Osborne will attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Australia later in the week. (AP Photo/Bobby Yip, Pool)
ASSOCIATED PRESS

George Osborne has seized upon new official figures showing that the Britain's economy grew by 0.8% at the start of 2014 as proof that Britain is finally "coming back".

"For the first time in a decade all three main sectors of the economy - manufacturing, services and construction - have grown by at least three per cent over the last year," he said.

According to some reports, Britain is now on course to overtake France and become the fifth-biggest economy in the world.

There's no doubt that this is all good news for the chancellor and for the UK economy - but we can't help but notice that Osborne didn't mention what's happening to living standards or compare our recovery to our neighbours.

Ever the party poopers, we at the Huffington Post UK have rounded up six rather notable omissions.

6 Things You Need To Know About The UK's Latest Growth Figures
You're still worse off in 2014 than in 2007(01 of06)
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As the picture for GDP per capita, charting individual output per person, Britain is lagging behind France, Germany, Japan and the US and is nowhere near where it was back in 2008.
Your pay is still falling, unless you got a bonus(02 of06)
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Britons' pay packets were 1.7% higher in the year to February, compared to the latest CPI inflation rate of 1.6%, however if you strip out bonuses, the pay growth falls to a below-inflation rate of 1.4%.
Britain still hasn't recovered yet(03 of06)
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The UK economy is still smaller than it was before the financial crisis in 2008, with GDP 0.6% below its pre-recession peak.
America recovered years ago(04 of06)
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We may have reached our pre-recession peak, but the US, which focused on growth as well as deficit reduction, is already 6.3% above where it was in 2008.
Even "failing" France is ahead...(05 of06)
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France, which is closer to its pre-recession peak than Britain, is meant to be a "failing" economy, as Tory MPs would have you believe.
Is it a recovery just for the banks? (06 of06)
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Three of the four sectors may have grown, but most of the growth came from the services and the finance sector while the agriculture sector actually shrank by 0.7%. The services sector is now 2% above the pre-recession peak, while production and construction sectors are both around 12% below where they were in 2008.
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