Slow growth and high borrowing

Back in the spring in the first of these pieces for Tax Journal I was able to report some generally good news on the economy and the public finances.

Growth had bounced back from its snow-affected fall at the end of 2010 and the Office for National Statistics had released figures showing a several billion pound undershoot in public borrowing for 2010/11.

The economy it seemed was following the normal pattern in which economists tend to underestimate the speed of recovery and the pace of deficit reduction.

Now it looks...