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Congratulations On The Recovery, Here Are 11 Problems Osborne Would Prefer You Ignored

Mission Accomplished? 11 Problems Osborne Would Prefer You Ignored
Asa Bennett
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George Osborne has thanked the "hard work of the British people" as official figures out today showed that Britain's economy has fully recovered from the financial crash.

With gross domestic product estimated to have grown by 0.8% in the second quarter of 2014, this means that Britain's economy is now 0.2% bigger than its pre-recession peak.

Economy grew by 0.8%. Thanks to the hard work of the British people, today we reach a major milestone in our #LongTermEconomicPlan

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) July 25, 2014

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has been even more chirpy, declaring that "the rescue has worked". He went on to boast: "Today is a big day for Britain - our economy is now the same size as it was before the crash."

On the Blog: Spencer Thompson, senior economist at the IPPR think-tank, on "GDP Figures: How the Economy Recovered Should Be Cause for Caution"

Clegg has been especially proud of his party's role, saying: "There would be no recovery without the Liberal Democrats." He also pledged to make the economy "even stronger" as the UK moves "from rescue to renewal".

Following the International Monetary Fund upgrading the UK's growth forecast for the fourth time in a row, the coalition would be forgiven for thinking that everything about the economy is hunky-dory now the "Great Depression" is over.

But ever the party pooper, HuffPost UK presents 11 graphs that illustrate a range of awkward economic problems the Chancellor would be less keen to talk about.

11 Facts George Osborne Wants You To Ignore Now The Great Depression Nears An End
Are we better off than we were six years ago? (01 of11)
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This chart, showing GDP per capita, which gives a sense of individual wealth, was 5.5% down in the first quarter of 2014 from the same point in 2008.
And on that measure, we're still behind the others(02 of11)
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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.
This is still the slowest recovery in 100 years(03 of11)
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According to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, Britain's recovery - even on Osborne's preferred measure of gross domestic product - is still astonishingly slow. (credit:NIESR )
Your pay won't be back to normal for years(04 of11)
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Inflation is still eating at your pay packet, which means you're getting poorer in real terms, and it will take a while before it not just starts to improve, but returns to pre-recession levels. Your pay packet is still continuing to fall by more than in any prior recovery and is down 8% since May 2010, experts warn.
London's property prices are still ludicrously unaffordable(05 of11)
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London's property prices are continuing to soar higher and higher as the government fails to get enough new homes built to keep up with demand.In an analysis of house prices compared to incomes by Fitch Ratings agency, London's property market sticks out at the very top in its unaffordability.
Osborne won't have an easy time getting Britain exporting (06 of11)
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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 struggling to eliminate the deficit(07 of11)
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George Osborne's hopes of eliminating Britain's deficit by 2018 look to be increasingly hard as the decline in the country's rate of borrowing appears to have stalled.
Britons are getting more in debt (08 of11)
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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 (09 of11)
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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 is borrowing much more than Labour did(10 of11)
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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.
And the UK is increasingly having to rely on foreign money(11 of11)
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The UK’s current account, which summarises the transactions between Britain and the rest of the world, has been getting worse, leading the ONS to conclude that the country was "becoming increasingly dependent on inflows of foreign capital".
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