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Recession May Be Over - Here's 9 Awkward Facts Osborne Would Prefer You Forget

Recession May Be Over - Here's 9 Awkward Facts Osborne Would Prefer You Forget
Asa Bennett
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RICKMANSWORTH, ENGLAND - APRIL 22: British Prime Minister David Cameron and British Chancellor George Osborne speak together during a question and answer session at the construction company Skanska on April 22, 2014 in Rickmansworth, England. The Prime Minister and Chancellor who usually avoid joint appearances spoke to employees following the announcement that 200 infrastructure projects are due to be completed in 2014-15, which the government claim will support more than 150,000 construction
Dan Kitwood via Getty Images

George Osborne is set to get a massive political boost as new figures suggest that the economy is nearly back to where it was in 2008, showing a full recovery after the financial crash.

According to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR), growth will exceed its 2008 high in the next few months. The institute also upgraded its growth forecast for this year by 0.4%, predicting that the economy will grow by 2.9% in 2014.

NIESR director Jonathan Portes told The Times: "The end of the Great Recession, it is an important moment. The British economy is very close to being bigger than it has ever been. Symbolically, that matters, and it comes at a time when growth is clearly entrenched."

Before you reach for the champagne to celebrate, we at HuffPostUK thought it worth pointing out nine sobering economic issues that Osborne would be less keen to talk about.

9 Facts George Osborne Wants You To Ignore Now The Great Recession Nears An End
This is still the slowest recovery in 100 years(01 of09)
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This is according to NIESR's own chart.. (credit:NIESR )
While America recovered ages ago...(02 of09)
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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.
You're still worse off than back in 2008(03 of09)
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Portes said: "What really matters is how rich we are - per capita GDP - and that's well below the level of 2008 and won't get back to its previous level for a couple of years."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 won't be back to normal for years(04 of09)
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As NIESR director Jonathan Portes told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Real wages - take-home pay deflated by inflation - is about 6% lower than it was then and won't get back to its previous 2008 peak before, we reckon, another three or four years."
Only people with bonuses are enjoying rising pay packets(05 of09)
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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%.
Britons are getting more in debt (06 of09)
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Despite Osborne promising that "we’re getting on top of our debts", the OBR predicts that household debt is set to take an be even bigger than expected as compared to workers' pay packets.
The country's own debt is still rising (07 of09)
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Osborne pledged to ensure that debt was falling by 2015-2016 in his first budget, but now is set to see debt only start to fall by 2016-2017 as it soars further and further past £1 trillion
Osborne will keep struggling to get us exporting (08 of09)
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Despite Osborne warning in his Budget that he wants businesses to export more, the OBR predicts that the UK's exports will still fail to make a net contribution to the country's growth. It said: "Net trade is expected to make little contribution to growth over the remainder of the forecast period, reflecting the weakness of export market growth and a gradual decline in export market share."
Osborne is borrowing more in 5 years than Labour did in 13(09 of09)
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The Spectator's scary graph shows the full extent of Osborne's planned borrowing. Osborne's austerity message was brutally undermined last November when the Office for National Statistics found that the coalition had borrowed £430.072 billion since it took over, whereas the last Labour government managed to borrow just £429.975 billion.
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