The Graph Osborne Doesn't Want You To See On Britain's Recovery
Osborne Would Really Not Want You To See This Graph
Asa Bennett— The Huffington Post UK
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Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne at a Global Economy Roundtable in Downing street in central London
Andrew Cowie/WPA-Rota
George Osborne has been very proud about his economic management, boasting that his cuts have helped secure Britain's economic recovery.
Speaking in April, the Chancellor told an American audience that a 'credible" cuts programme was a "necesssary precondition for sustainable economic recovery".
He added: "The pessimistic predictions that fiscal consolidation was incompatible with economic recovery have been proved comprehensively wrong by events."
But why do his other colleagues disagree, like former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke, who warned that "real people" had yet to feel the economic recovery?
The answer is shown by this graph from the Office for National Statistics, which charts how Britain's overall wealth is inching towards its pre-recession peak, while individual Britons' share of the country's wealth has barely improved.
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Thanks to Britain's growing population, Osborne is able to boast about Britain's rising gross domestic product (GDP), while glossing over the lackluster growth in the country's GDP per capita.
In further news that Osborne would not rush to mention, his predictions on when Britons would enjoy as great a share of the country's wealth as before the recession have proved hideously optimistic.
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)
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)
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)