I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way a second time. Let me take a specific example. It is well understood in the forecasting business that forecasts for six months or a year ahead can be relatively accurate, but as the forecast moves forward in years, the inaccuracy increases exponentially. Let us take the forecast for 2010-11. A year ago, when the Government made the forecast that growth would be 1 to 1.5 per cent., they were widely ridiculed, on the specific basis that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, for being biased in an over-optimistic way. We now discover that the consensus of forecasters is that growth this year will be 1 to 1.5 per cent. Does he admit that sometimes the Treasury gets it right?
Fiscal Responsibility Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Andrew Love
(Labour)
in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 20 January 2010.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Fiscal Responsibility Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
504 c361 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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2023-12-11 10:03:07 +0000
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