Positive statement

Last week the Chancellor presented his Autumn Statement. He focused on the latest economic forecast from the Office for Budgetary Responsibility — an independent body set up by the Government to make fiscal projections — something that previous Chancellor's used to do for themselves, with the obvious temptation of being, well you know, perhaps a touch optimistic.

The outlook according to this independent body is positive, with growth this year projected at 1.8% compared with its June projection of 1.2% (although it has revised downwards slightly its growth forecast for the next couple of years but still with good figures, for example, 2.1% next year).

The outlook on jobs remains positive with growing employment figures projected for every year over the Comprehensive Spending Review period (ie, until 2014/15).

Especially encouraging is the OBR's downward revision of the number of public sector jobs expected to be lost over the next four years as the economy is rebalanced in favour of the private sector. In June they projected 490,000. They have now revised that figure down to 330,000.

PricewaterhouseCoopers previously projected that around half a million private sector jobs would be lost as a direct consequence of the 490,000 job losses expected in the public sector and so the drop to 330,000 will see a saving of many thousands of jobs in the private sector as well — something the Chancellor confirmed when I raised that point with him during the questions session in the chamber after his statement.

It is the Government's prompt and firm action on tackling the deficit that has led to our country looking forward to growth and job creation and avoiding the fate of Greece and Ireland. By 2014/15 the OBR projects that our deficit will have fallen from £148.5-billion to £18-billion. That will be a significant achievement.