Slowdown puts the economy in focus
DAVID Cameron yesterday pledged to make the economy the central issue of the General Election campaign amid fears the recovery is slowing.
Official figures will tomorrow show how Britain fared in the first three months of 2015 – with many analysts expecting disappointment for the Coalition.
Gross domestic product increased by 0.6pc in the final quarter of 2014.
Britain was the f astest growing economy i n the Group of Seven industrialised nations last year – leaving rivals including the US, Germany and France trailing in its wake.
But it is thought the pace of recovery slowed after New Year in a blow to the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Alan Clarke, an economist at Scotiabank, predicted that the Office for National Statistics will report growth of just 0.4pc for the first quarter of 2015.
‘The monthly data all point towards sluggish GDP, not the sort of reading that the Coalition will be hoping for,’ he said.
Andrew Goodwin, an economist at Oxford Economics, said: ‘A disappointing reading could cause a headache for the incumbent parties, particularly given their desire to emphasise their economic credentials.’
Others are more optimistic, however, with research group Markit forecasting ‘robust’ growth of 0.7pc. Cameron and George Osborne will seek to turn any slowdown to their advantage – warning that the economy is still fragile and now is not the right time to change direction.
They will claim that a Labour government propped up by the Scottish National Party would drive up taxes, i ncrease borrowing and derail the recovery.
Cameron said the Tory campaign will focus on the economy ‘to the exclusion of everything else’ between now and polling day on May 7.
The Tories won fresh backing from two leading business figures yesterday – with industrialist Sir Nigel Rudd and f ormer Labour supporter Sir Charles Dunstone warning that Labour poses a serious threat to t he economy.
Rudd, who is chairman of engineering group Meggitt, said Mr Miliband could end up running ‘a predominantly Left-wing government desperate to keep S NP support’.
He said: ‘I cannot stress enough how damaging this will be for Britain and the British economy.’
Dunstone, the founder of Carphone Warehouse who publicly backed Tony Blair in 2005, added: ‘We are rounding the corner and really getting somewhere as a country – and we would be crazy to throw it all away now.’
Economic output crashed by 6pc in the Great Recession under Labour in the biggest boom and bust in British history.
But the economy has since grown by more than 8pc under the Coalition while the deficit has fallen from a record £153.5bn in 2009-10 to £87.3bn in 2014-15 and unemployment has dropped from nearly 8pc to 5.6pc.