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George Osborne Says Britain's 'Best Days Lie Ahead', Ignoring These 6 Graphs

Our 'Best Days Lie Ahead'? 6 Hugely Awkward Graphs Osborne Doesn't Want You To See
Asa Bennett
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Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses The Creative Sector Tax Relief Conference at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) in central London on April 4, 2014. AFP PHOTO/POOL/JOHN STILLWELL (Photo credit should read JOHN STILLWELL/AFP/Getty Images)
JOHN STILLWELL via Getty Images

George Osborne is taking the world stage to boast that his austerity strategy has succeeded and that Britain's 'best days lie ahead'.

The Chancellor is in a perky mood in Washington thanks the latest International Monetary Fund predictions which say the UK will be the fastest-growing economy among the major nations this year. Last year the body warned that Osborne was "playing with fire" by pursuing his cuts agenda.

"All of this demonstrates that fiscal consolidation and economic recovery go together, and undermines the pessimistic prognosis that only further fiscal stimulus can drive sustainable growth. Indeed that is precisely the wrong prescription for our economies," he will say in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

Although Osborne boasts that "our nations' best days lie ahead", he overlooks a range of issues that have arisen under his economic management.

From Britain's soaring debt burden to its depressing export prospects, here are six rather awkward facts in graph form that rather undermine Osborne's upbeat message about the UK economy.

6 Graphs That George Osborne Ignores When He Says Britain's Best Days Lie Ahead
Nearly everyone else is doing better than us...(01 of06)
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America under Obama is 6.5% ahead of its pre-recession peak, which may be linked to his economic stimulus. Meanwhile, France, which Tory MPs mock as a "failing" economy, is just 0.3% behind its pre-recession peak, already nearer to a full recovery than than Britain.
The UK is set to fall behind in the 'global race' (02 of06)
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Despite coalition rhetoric that the UK is in a "global race" against other countries, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government's independent watchdog, warned that they expect the UK's share of the export market to keep shrinking as it loses out to competitors over the next few years.
Osborne will keep struggling to get Britain exporting (03 of06)
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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."
Britons are getting more in debt (04 of06)
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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 (05 of06)
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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 borrowed more in 3 years than Labour in 13 (06 of06)
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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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