Ian Stewart, Chief Economist at Deloitte, comments.
Mr Osborne's message is that Britain's on the mend, but he needs time to finish the job.
The Office of Budget Responsibility projects that the UK is heading for the strongest growth in seven years, enough for the UK to outperform two BRIC nations, Brazil and Russia this year.
The OBR forecasts a boom in capital spending, with capex rising 50% over the next five years. This seems wholly credible and fits with record readings on corporate risk appetite coming from the latest Deloitte CFO Survey, high levels of capacity utilisation and growing investor pressure for investment.
Austerity will run through the next Parliament, with about half of all the required cuts in public spending to come after the election.
We are moving to a different stage of the fiscal cycle ahead of the election, with Mr Osborne announcing new public spending cuts to finance lower tax in the next Parliament. Lower taxes and sharply rising incomes point to a revival in consumer spending power in the next Parliament.
Mr Osborne has offered his economic vision for the next Parliament. It has three elements – a revival in corporate activity, rising incomes and lower taxes for consumers and the elimination of the public sector deficit through cuts in spending.
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